This is a page dedicated to the wild horses that are left around the United States. There will be information on call in days, updated information on situations that come through, and any other wild horse related information.

One of the largest wild horse roundups in Nevada history is over. The Bureau of Land Management says it gathered more than 2,000 mustangs from the sprawling Calico Range in Northern Nevada, but that's far fewer than the agency expected to capture.

Critics of the BLM say the Calico roundup is a perfect illustration of what's wrong with the BLM wild horse program, which uses roundups as its principal management tool.

BLM often says it is "mandated by law" to gather up wild horses from public land. The fact is, the law doesn't say that. It allows BLM to use roundups as one of the management tools at its disposal, but it doesn't order the agency to gather up mustangs.

Critics say BLM always uses roundups as its first choice. The fact that there are now more wild horses in captivity than on tens of millions of public acres proves something is wrong with the program.

The Black Rock Desert and surrounding range is stark and beautiful, but not what you would call a garden spot. But it is just fine for wild horses and is one of the last remaining mustang strongholds in the nation -- at least it was.

The BLM determined that 3,000 horses spread across more than half a million acres were simply too many, so they set out in December to gather them up.

The imagery of the roundup is unmistakably moving. On one January day, BLM contractors herded yet another band of mustangs across miles of rocky terrain, and then into a temporary corral, but the cowboys missed the stallion of the band.

Observers watched as he inched closer and closer to his mares, oblivious to the possibility of capture, and repeatedly called out to them, as if to ask, "What the heck was happening?" It's one of the questions the public has been asking about BLM's aggressive schedule of roundups, including the Calico roundup conducted in weather so harsh it repeatedly shut down the operation several times.

As always, BLM says it was done for the good of the horses.

"The reason we did go forward was based on the fact that if we didn't gather this winter, we would really have an emergency situation this summer," said BLM District Manager Gene Seidlitz.

According to Seidlitz, BLM is mandated by law to gather excess horses, and he says the bureau did extensive monitoring to confirm the numbers. But the fact is, the numbers were wrong and BLM knows it.

Critics told BLM before the roundup there weren't nearly as many horses in Calico as predicted. BLM said it planned to gather up to 2,700 mustangs, but it couldn't find that many.

They stopped about 700 horses fewer than their its target. How could they be that far off?

"There's a lot of migration of wild horses going on that we didn't realize until recently," said Seidlitz.

Wild horses migrating across invisible boundary lines? Who knew?

Critics like Cindy MacDonald say the problem is inherent because BLM doesn't do much observation work. Rather, it depends on estimates to create what's called AML -- Appropriate Management Level -- desired targets that were written up 10 or more years earlier.

"They are supposed to being doing these population levels based on range land data. Instead they use population charts and just check off little boxes, no proof required. Then they turn around and authorize tons of livestock units," she said.

BLM says its primary job is to protect the land and that horses are incredibly destructive. In roundup after roundup, the agency claims horses are starving and that the range is imperiled, but the agency sometimes has trouble keeping its story straight, especially when it comes to cattle.

In January 2008, for instance, BLM authorized a 300-percent increase in the number of cattle that could graze in the very same Calico area. BLM experts said at the time that the impact from wild horses in the area as minimal, which meant the number of authorized cattle could increase.

Two months after the jump in cattle was approved, BLM produced a new survey claiming the wild horse population was had jumped from 500 to more than 3,000 in just four years -- an increase critics say is preposterous.

Nonetheless, more cattle were authorized and the horses had to go.

Attorney Valerie Stanley accomplished what no one else has done. She stopped a BLM roundup by taking them to federal court in Colorado. Stanley argued that BLM tends to make stuff up as it goes along. The judge agreed.

"BLM for so long has just had this position of whatever they say goes," she said.

BLM might get used to seeing Valerie Stanley. She has agreed to devote her practice to stopping planned roundups, and there are a lot of them in the works.

Even though the Calico roundup is over, its effects are still being felt in the form of horses that are dying after being captured. Friday at 5, a look at the consequences of this equine harvest

Tue Feb 9, 2010 5:17 am (PST)
----- Original Message -----
From: Vicki Tobin
To: Vicki Tobin
Sent: Monday, February 08, 2010 11:21 PM
Subject: Horseback Magazine | BLM Admits "Gather" Likely Cause Of Foal Losing its Hooves
Kudos to Steve for more stinging commentary.http://www.horsebackmagazine.com/
BLM Admits "Gather" Likely Cause Of Foal Losing its Hooves
Video Of Relentless Chase Posted on You Tube
By Steven Long
HOUSTON, (Horseback) - The federal Bureau of Land Management has released a veterinary report to Horseback Magazine that was requested by several individuals and advocacy groups. The report provides sketchy details on the final days of a foal filmed by photo journalist and videographer Laura Leigh during a Nevada "gather" of wild horses.
In the report, BLM veterinarian Richard Sanford wrote that "The gather most likely caused the hoof trauma in this case." He went on to state that "poor body condition and weakness was most likely present before the gather."
February 6, 2010
History and Report on Sloughed Hoof Colt
An eight month old colt arrived at the Indian Lakes Facility on about 1/20/2010 and was in very poor body condition and had sore feet. It was placed in the sick pen area where treatment could be administered. Over the next ten days, the colt was treated with phenylbutazone (a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug), penicillin (an antibiotic) and foot bandages (one front foot and both hind feet) on three occasions before it was euthanized on 1/30/2010.
The colt alternately improved and regressed. The colt would be standing while eating and drinking one day and not on the next day. The colt never was able to actually gain weight, improve body condition or show increased energy. Lameness improved with treatment but eventually the colt became too weak to stand. Hoof wall separation occurred on the front foot and one hind foot. The colt was euthanized for humane reasons.
The gather most likely caused the hoof trauma in this case. However, the poor body condition and weakness was most likely present before the gather.
Richard Sanford, DVM
NV # 565
The roundup was held in the Calico Mountains. Wild horse advocates claim that horses were stampeded as much as 15 miles before being driven into pens. One horse, dubbed "Freedom" by advocates escaped and was photographed in dramatic still shots
The treatment of horses by BLM has sparked protests from coast to coast. On Sunday, another planned roundup was abruptly postponed by the agency.
Vicki | A Voice for Our Horses

The federal Bureau of Land Management has canceled a proposed Nevada roundup of wild horses in the wake of nationwide anti-cruelty protests. For details go to www.horsebackmagazine.com. The horses were to be captured from the Eagle Herd Management Area.

Horseback Magazine has also learned that a video is likely to be posted later Sunday on You Tube of the chase of a terrified foal by a low flying helicopter during another roundup completed late last week. The foal couldn't keep up with its mother as the low flying chopper relentlessly pursued it. Two foals lost their hooves and were euthanized after such a stampede in the Calico Mountains. The video also shows horses suffering in a BLM holding pen, allegedly including one of the foals who lost its hooves after being captured at Calico.

From the desk of Deanne Stillman:
hi all - as some of you know, a very disturbing situation is unfolding at the calico mountains complex round-up in nevada. to date, according to this report from the war room at the alliance of wild horse advocates (link below), citing blm's own information about the round-up, 43 wild horses have perished. a situation in which mustangs die during brutal round-ups in order to keep herds healthy is orwellian at best.

to hear of these latest fatalities hurts my heart, and i know that you are all hurting as well. over the past few weeks, i've received numerous emails asking me to address the situation in writing. as some of you know, i've done just that, in my book and various articles and blogs over the years, and i continue to do so in my talks around the country.

i've assembled a list of some of my key pieces about america's ongoing war against the wild horse and burro, and here's the link (keep scrolling and click on titles, which at first may look like they are not highlighted). i encourage you to contact your representatives and media folk, and let them know what's going on. feel free to quote from these pieces if you'd like. alas, the names and places may have changed, but the siege continues: as i've often said, we are a cowboy nation, and we are destroying the horse we rode in on.

it's important to try to head off this disaster at the pass, and also not to forget that other such scenarios have been halted before they started (for instance, the recent, impending round-up of the douglas herd in colorado, thanks to the legal battle waged by valerie stanley).

HOUSTON, (Horseback) – The federal Bureau of Land Management confirmed today that a second foal has died at their hands after losing its hooves possibly from being driven down a Nevada mountainside by a roaring helicopter.

“Apparently there has been one more foal that was euthanized because of hoof Sloughs,” BLM spokeswoman JoLynn Worley of the agency’s Winnemucca office told Horseback Online.

The agency classifies the 1669 horses it has rounded up at the current Calico Mountain gather as “excess.”

Horseback has asked for the report of the BLM veterinarian who treated the foal. The foal died Saturday after two weeks of treatment. Worley has said she will post the report on the website when it becomes available.

Activist and videographer Laura Leigh noticed the foal laying down last week during a visit to the BLM hospital site. She had found the animal a caregiver outside of BLM control, however, it was too late.

According to a website set up for the current Calico roundup citing day to day progress on the capture of wild horses, the bureau acknowledges 27 deaths since the “gather” began on December 28th.

The BLM also admits that 20 to 30 mares have miscarried since late December.

Helicopter induced roundups have consistently resulted in wild horse deaths according to BLM statistics released late last year to Horseback Magazine.

In 2008, 45 percent of the roundups resulted in at least one fatality, and on one in Nevada, 27 horses died. The total number of deaths through injury or for other reasons totaled 126 animals that year.

The 2009 percentage of dead horses on BLM roundups is slightly worse at 46 percent resulting in at least one horse death. In July, a Wyoming gather proved fatal to 11 horses

Over the two years prior to the 2010 roundup season a total of 205 horses died at the agency’s hands

In BLM roundups, horses are often driven down miles of rocky slopes by a roaring helicopter. Such was the case in Wyoming this year when 11 horses died at Coconut Creek when 349 horses were caught.

February 2, 2010
The losses associated with BLM's Calico Mountains Complex have become
staggering. With a little over half the intended numbers of horses
being rounded up, BLM's statistics show a total of 43 deaths.http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/wfo/blm_programs/wild_horses_and_burros/calico_mountains_complex/gather_activity_updates.html
I would acknowledge that perhaps three of these horses would not have
survived long on the range due to age and condition, or in one case a
cardiac defect, however that still leaves what could be argued as being
40 deaths associated with the roundup and related activities.
BLM in Washington D.C. is trying to dismiss 20 spontaneously aborted
foals as being technically "miscarriages" rather than horse deaths, but
that's a cheap semantic trick. Meanwhile employees on the ground are
trying to make the best of a bad situation that was not of their making.
Another cheap shot diversion by the likes of Secretary "Cattleman Ken"
Salazar is that the horse advocates are simply emotional. Perhaps "mad
as Hell" is an emotion. The irony here is that over the years the
advocate groups have dealt with literally thousands of horses, many that
were found in worse shape than the horses coming in from the Calico.
The performance record of the experienced advocate groups puts BLM's
performance to shame.
Clearly it is time for some reality based horse policy to take hold in
Washington, D.C. While bureaucrats and politicians weave spin, horses
are dying. Enough is enough.
A more detailed discussion on this matter with specific examples can be
found in the Wild Horse War Room.http://www.aowha.org/war/calico1002.html
Advocates must hold the line until this debate finally comes down to
real facts, real probabilities and practical solutions. Each of you who
is concerned about this matter needs to keep contacting your elected
representatives and demand that the present plunge into disaster stop
until a full reckoning can be made and a more practical and balanced
approach to public lands management can be achieved. We cannot let
"horse care" be handled like Congress' recent approach to health care.
Thanks!
":O) Willis

Fort Collins Protest-Feb 5 First Night in Old Town
Protest for moratorium on roundups and to save WH&B. Friday, Feb 5 at 4:00 pm in Old Town, Ft. Collins. This is First Night Art Walk. Meet at Mulberry and College (Safeway corner) to start, and we will move to Mountain and College as First Night begins at 6:00 pm and traffic increases. Park at public lots (2) on Mountain (east of College), and on LaPorte (west of College). Bring posters, flyers, signs, etc. Let’s keep the momentum going!!!!

Janet C.

Ft. Collins, Co.

Subject: STRATEGY FOR WK OF JANUARY 24
Hello EveryoneGreat news!! As many of you know, HR 503 will be coming up for a full Judiciary Committee hearing on February 2. For this reason, we will be targeting our calls to the members of this Committee that are not yet co-sponsors. Please call the following members and ask them for their support on Tuesday, February 2.Tammy Baldwin202-225-2906Rick Boucher202-255-3861Jason Chaffetz202-225-7751Howard Coble202-225-3065Randy Forbes202-225-6365Trent Franks202-225-4576Louie Gohmert202- 225-3035Charles Gonzales 202-225-3236Gregg Harper 202-225-5031Darryl Issa 202- 225-3906Jim Jordan202-225-2676Steve King202-225-4426Dan Lungren202-225-5716Linda Sanchez202-225-6676Adam Schiff202-225-4176F. James Sensenbrenner202-225-5101Lamar Smith202-225-4236Maxine Waters202-225-2201Also, please call your own Representatives that have not yet signed on and ask them to support HR 503Congressman Conyers issued a statement last week to AAHS indicating how important our involvement is in ending horse slaughter. Once again we are being called up on to act. RISE UP…….meet the call and lets work together to finally get this done.Thanks for all you doShelley and DebAmericans Against Horse Slaughter---

Tue Jan 26, 2010 1:45 pm (PST)
I wanted to see if I could get your quick help. Change.org recently launched the 2010 Ideas for Change in America competition.
One idea is titled: STOP cruel BLM round ups of WILD HORSES. I thought you might be interested in getting involved and recommend you check it out. You can read more and vote for the idea by clicking the following link:http://www.change.org/ideas/view/stop_cruel_blm_round_up_of_wild_horses
The top 10 voted ideas will be presented at an event in Washington, DC to relevant members of the Obama Administration, and then promoted to Change.org's full community of more than 1 million people. So we could have a real impact.
Thanks for the help!
Robin
Robin J. Yager, Director
Network Partners for Animals*
* We do not sanction any groups' ethics or actions and offer the Network Partners Group as a networking resource tool. http://www.partnershelpinganimalscoalition-subscribe@yahoogroups.com (remove spacing)
Spring Farm CARES
3364 Route 12
Clinton, NY 13323
315-790-1404http://www.springfarmcares.org (no spaces)
Life is as dear to the mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wants
happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not to die, so
do other creatures. ~ His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Mon Jan 25, 2010 4:39 am (PST)
----- Original Message -----
From: vicki tobin
To: vicki tobin
Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 10:01 PM
Subject: Missouri bill introduced and great rebuttal to Salazar Editorial
This is from Laura Allen at Animal Law Coalition. We suspect we'll start seeing quite a few of these from the anti-horse states. http://www.animallawcoalition.com/horse-slaughter/article/1160 HB 1747 introduced by MO state Rep. Viebrock that would authorize the state of MO to pay for USDA inspections and otherwise allow the state dept of ag to register, certify and regulate horse slaughter facilities.
Show MO Legislators Why They Should Oppose H.B. 1747
Posted Jan 24, 2010 by lauraallen
o Horse Slaughter
Missouri state Rep. James Viebrock has introduced a bill, H.B. 1747, that would authorize registration and inspections for commercial horse slaughter for human consumption.
The bill proposes that the Missouri Dept. of Agriculture would register commercial horse slaughter operations and certify "that the parts of horses to be processed are fit for human food, and the processing establishment to be operated complies with ... sanitary standards". All registration and inspection fees collected" would "be paid to the director of agriculture and deposited into the state 'Horse Meat and Product Fund'". Annual inspection fees would be used "to pay for USDA inspection of horse meat products and horse meat processing facilities."
According to the bill, H.B. 1747, "the [state] director [of Agriculture] shall make all necessary inspections and investigations" and the USDA would also have access "at all reasonable times to any building, room, vehicle, boat, or other premises in which any horse carcass, horse meat, or horse meat food product is processed, packed, transported, sold, exposed, or offered for sale at retail."
The USDA would be free to pay for samples or specimens of the carcass or "product" to determine if there are violations of USDA regulations.
The new law would have requirements for labeling, remedies to protect against adulteration, misbranding, failure to label or brand, or unfitness for human consumption. Places that serve horsemeat would be required to post conspicuous warning signs.
The proposal, of course, is simply another tactic to try to create a market in the U.S. for horse meat or at least pretend there is one with the hope of forcing a return of horse slaughter to this country. This bill is similar to a number of bills and resolutions introduced in 2009 in an effort to defeat the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act, H.R. 503/S.B. 727, now pending in Congress and which would make it illegal to "possess..., ship..., transport..., purchase.., sell... deliver..., or receive" in interstate or foreign commerce any horse "with the intent that it is to be slaughtered for human consumption".
Right now, commercial horse slaughter for human consumption is illegal in the U.S. though horses can be transported to other countries, typically Mexico and Canada, for slaughter. Since 2006 Congress has de-funded ante-mortem inspections required to slaughter horses for human consumption. Congress continued the de-funding in the 2010 Appropriations Act, Sec. 744.
In 2007 a federal court rejected an attempt by the USDA to allow horse slaughter operators to pay for the inspections. The USDA is currently not authorized to conduct ante-mortem inspections of horses to be slaughtered for human consumption. Without those inspections, it is illegal under the Federal Meat Inspection Act ("FMIA"), 21 U.S.C. §§601(w)(1), 603, to slaughter horses for human consumption.
If this bill becomes law, it is not clear the USDA would authorize Missouri state inspectors to conduct the required inspections. The funds to pay for the state as well as USDA inspections would come from horse slaughter operators, the same situation in the previous litigation. The judge in that case found the USDA violated the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 706 and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) 42 U.S.C. § 4321, et seq., by failing to consider adequately, or, really, at all, the environmental impact of its action in allowing horse slaughter operators to pay for their own inspections.
Also, there is strong opposition to horse slaughter in the U.S., and the goal is to pass the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act, H.R. 503/S.B. 727, to end this brutal practice altogether for all American horses. A similar bill passed the House of Representatives by an overwhelming majority in 2006, a vote of 263 to 146, but was never voted on in the Senate.
In 2007 a law in Texas, Texas Agriculture Code §§ 149.001-.007 was found to ban horse slaughter for human consumption and was upheld by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. A ban in Illinois, 225 ILCS 635, on horse slaughter for human consumption was upheld in 2008 by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. These state laws and court rulings closed the 3 facilities that were still slaughtering horses in the U.S.; those facilities were located in Texas and Illinois. (Go here to read about and help oppose state Rep. Jim Sacia's effort once again to overturn the Illinois ban on horse slaughter for human consumption; the Iliinois legislature and Illinois voters have never supported this effort. )
Horse slaughter is also illegal in California, CA Penal Code § 598c ("unlawful for any person to possess, to import into or export from the state, or to sell, buy, give away, hold, or accept any horse with the intent of killing, or having another kill, that horse, if that person knows or should have known that any part of that horse will be used for human consumption"). A Mississippi law, MS Code §75-33-3, states that the "term 'food unfit for human consumption' shall be construed to include meat and meat-food products of horses and mules.". In Oklahoma, 63 Okla. Stat. §1-1136, it is "unlawful for any person to sell, offer or exhibit for sale . . . any quantity of horsemeat for human consumption."
In 2009 the Rhode Island House of Representatives issued a resolution in support of a federal ban on commercial horse slaughter for human consumption. A bill is pending in New York to ban commercial horse slaughter or trade in horse meat for human consumption. A similar bill remains is pending in Wisconsin, S.B. 142.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
If you live in Missouri, find your state representative here. If you don't live in Missouri, well, this bill affects horses in your state, so find Missouri representatives here. Everyone, write (letters or faxes are best) or call and urge these representatives to vote no to H.B. 1747. Please be polite. Tell them horse slaughter is a seedy business that is cruel and inhumane; there is no way to make horse slaughter profitable and also humane. Americans don't consume horsemeat, and these facilities are generally owned by foreign investors that ship the horsemeat products overseas where they are consumed as delicacies in expensive restaurants. The profits go overseas as well...Local governments can't even collect sales taxes from them. There is no benefit to any community from a horse slaughter facility. Go here to read about the experience of the mayor of Kaufman, Texas when a horse slaughter facility operated there. There was
no economic benefit, only financial hardship, pollution, and a town plagued by horrific smells and blood and waste in the streets.
Go here to read how you can help pass the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act, H.R. 503/S.B. 727, now pending in Congress.
This is an excellent rebuttal to the Salazar Editorialhttp://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-oew-carone22-2010jan22,0,4417485.story
Give wild horses their land back
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's plan for managing the American mustang population repeats past failures.
By Jack Carone
January 21, 2010 | 5:35 p.m.
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's ode to the "majestic" wild horse, and his description of how the federal government must manage its population in his Jan. 14 Times Op-Ed article, comes across to the average reader as a reasonable and sympathetic approach to the problems faced by the American mustang. What Salazar doesn't mention is that the bureaucracies now under his control -- and the business interests they service -- have created the problems the Interior secretary says he wants to solve.
Today, like any population that stands in the way of those who covet their land, the wild horses continue to be removed from their range land and tragically herded down the trail to oblivion. With little basis in sound science, the horse has been scapegoated for environmental degradation. Meanwhile, government audits have found that the Bureau of Land Management has been curbing wild horse populations in areas where private livestock grazing is increasing. Cattle grazing on public land -- easily a much bigger cause of rang land deterioration -- outnumber wild horses by at least 200 to 1.
Salazar writes that since the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act was enacted in 1971 -- which allowed wild horses to live free on lands where they existed at the time -- the Bureau of Land Management has helped wild horse populations thrive and recover. Salazar has a curious definition of "thrive" and "recover." Since 1971, the BLM has systematically whittled away the act's protections, with about 47,000 wild horses now kept in short- and long-term holding pens and just 31,000 left roaming free on public lands.
Salazar's suggestion that horse adoption is part of the answer is perhaps his most outrageous one. In 1997, a BLM official told the Associated Press that roughly 90% of adopted wild horses ended up going to slaughter. While some horses are adopted and do adapt to a domestic lifestyle, tens of thousands remain in holding. The government spends more than $30 million a year to house captured horses, a useless expense considering that there is no need to find new land for the American mustang. The land designated for them in 1971 hasn't gone anywhere; instead, wild horses have been permanently removed from nearly 20 million acres of their original herd areas. Some of these lands have been sold and made available for livestock, but they have never been reopened to the horses.
We do appreciate Salazar's interest in "new partnerships" and "new thinking," and we certainly look forward to working together on a viable alternative to the current management paradigm. But using progressive language is a far cry from implementing an ethically sustainable program. Indeed, a U.S. District Court judge recently said that Salazar's proposed "plan" to relocate wild horses to holding facilities in the Midwest and east of the Mississippi River violates federal law.
Salazar encourages the public to get involved by coming out to the range and helping to care for the horses. This is a nice sentiment, but does Salazar seriously think he can address a "problem" that includes thousands of animals and hundreds of thousands of acres by getting a few environmentally inclined Americans to visit the range?
Perhaps most poisonous is the BLM's misrepresentation of wild American horses as an invasive species. In reality, horses originated in North America between 1 million and 2 million years ago. These ancient North American horses, which are believed to have died out around the end of the last Ice Age, are biologically the same as the horses that arrived here about 10,000 years later. Native to this continent, the horses that have returned to their natural state over the past few hundred years, on our vast remote ranges, represent the current adaptation of the North American wild horse.
The BLM must halt its horse roundups until the population of wild horses and burros on public lands can be independently assessed. It ought to abandon its haphazard way of corralling and housing horses and perfect methods to progressively manage populations on the range.
A 1990 study by the U.S. General Accountability Office has already found that cattle and sheep grazing -- not free-roaming wild horses -- damage range and riparian areas the most. Old and failed policies must stop now so that we don't continue to create bigger problems.
Secretary Salazar, please stop galloping in the wrong direction.
Vicki | A Voice for Our Horses

From: The Cloud Foundation
Sent: Friday, January 22, 2010 1:39 AM
To: Makendra
Subject: BLM ran feet off foal and mare dies
Two more horses were killed at the Fallon Facility in conjunction with the
Calico roundup today. Based on the posted BLM report: The Cattoors/BLM ran
the feet off a colt on Tuesday, let him stand for a day, then made him ride
four hours in a trailer to Fallon where he was unloaded and then shot. At
least two of his hooves had fallen off. This colt and his family may have
been run by helicopter up to 14 miles on Tuesday. We don’t know how fast
over rough volcanic rock and terrain this foal was run. Another mare was
down in the trailer, arrived at Fallon alive and then died subsequently.
No members of the public were allowed to observe today and no one will be
allowed to go to Fallon Facility until Tuesday, Jan. 26th. Calls were placed
to both Assistant Director of Renewable Resources & Planning Ed Roberson and
BLM Director Abbey by the Cloud Foundation in regards to the situation at
the new Fallon facility. Calls were not returned.
The death toll is now up to six at the Fallon Facility. This absolutely
unnecessary cruel winter roundup at taxpayer expense must stop. Please call
on whatever connections you may have to help these wild horses
From BLM's website, 1/21/10 Calico Roundup Update
- Transported 118 horses to the Fallon facility on Wednesday. Plan to
ship the horses remaining at the gather corrals to Fallon today. Continuing
to dissemble the gather corrals and move to new location in the Calico HMA.
Mares coming into the Fallon facility are in poorer condition than
stallions and weanlings/foals. About 30 mares from the Warm Springs HMA
range in body condition from a 2.5 to 3.0. One mare that was down on the
transport truck arrived at the facility alive, but subsequently died. One
colt with multiple hoof sloughs from the capture was euthanized at the
facility.
- About 20 to 25 horses at the facility have received treatment for
various injuries or lameness and are recovering. There are no indications
of infectious respiratory disease.
- The BLM has asked that wind breaks be installed at the Fallon
facility, similar to ones that are at the Palomino Valley Center. The
contractor will begin constructing wind breaks in 12 of the smaller
holding/sorting pens which are used for sick or lame animals.
- Totals: 1,195 gathered, 1,074 moved to Fallon, 30 at gather corrals,
2 euthanized at gather site, 1 death pre-existing condition, 1 back to HMA.
- Fallon facility: 6 deaths

Wed Jan 20, 2010 2:57 pm (PST)
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Protests This Week
Sacramento: Thursday, Tucson: Friday
plus Phoenix: Jan. 30th
Sacramento Protest: A protest is scheduled for the California State Capitol following large protests in San Francisco and Los Angeles. This is another locally organized rally supported by The Cloud Foundation, In Defense of Animals, Return to Freedom all the other American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign member organizations.When: Thursday January 21stWhere: Capitol Mall, at 10th and L Streets (map)Time:11:00am -1:00pm
Tucson Protest: Tucson is joining the national movement of Wild Horse enthusiasts along with the Cloud Foundation and local horse rescue Equine Voices.When: Friday January 22, 2010Where: Senator John McCain’s Downtown Tucson Office407 West Congress Street Suite 103, Tucson Arizona 85701Time: 10am – 12PM
Phoenix Protest:If you are interested in helping further plan this protest, please contact
info@thecloudfoundation.orgWhen: Saturday, January 30thWhere: BLM Phoenix Office, One N. Central Avenue Suite 800Time: TBAComment Now to Stop Eagle Roundup of 550 Nevada Mustangs
The BLM plans to leave only 100 wild horses on 670,000 acres of public land in Nevada that Congress set-aside principally for their use. They are now proposing to roundup and remove 550 "excess" wild horses in yet another inhumane winter roundup planned to begin February 7th.
Please take time to comment now! Comments are due by January 27th.
In Defense of Animals has set up an easy to use comment form, just be sure to submit your own comments.
Read in-depth reporting on the BLM's faulty analysis in the Eagle Environmental Assessment on the American Herds Blog
Links of Interest:
PSA: Wild Horse Emergency
2010 Roundup Schedule
Roundup Testimonials
Calico Observer Reports
The Cloud Foundation Blog
Protest Center
Sec. Salazar's Letter: Please correct!
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Sun Jan 17, 2010 4:06 am (PST)
----- Original Message -----
From: vicki tobin
To: vicki tobin
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2010 9:22 PM
Subject: Mythmaking on both sides of wild horse issuehttp://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_14200871
Mythmaking on both sides of wild horse issue
By Willis Lamm
Updated: 01/15/2010 02:04:38 PM MST
While clearly some of the more extreme elements in the wild horse advocacy camp have expressed some far-fetched allegations regarding the Bureau of Land Management, BLM Director Bob Abbey has responded with a few myths of his own ("Many myths in wild horse management debate," Opinion, Jan. 10).
The BLM, in fact, has sold horses to individuals who in turn sold them for slaughter ("BLM says it has 'no legal recourse' to stop wild horse slaughter," Billings Gazette). The BLM's amassing greater numbers of horses in "long-term holding" only makes such sales more likely in the future.
There may be some truth to the claim that BLM has removed horses to make room for cattle. BLM is often not in compliance with respect to completing required scoping and environmental assessments when grazing leases and permits are renewed and cattle are allotted subject to "retroactive review," according to BLM Sierra Front and the NW Great Basin Resource Advisory Council. When range conditions decline horses are often blamed.
There may be some truth to the claim that the BLM has illegally taken some acreage away from horse herds. Clearly, available acreage has declined significantly.
Recently a federal judge ruled that the BLM exceeded its authority in its plans to remove all the horses from the West Douglas, Colo., herd management area, effectively removing that acreage from horse use. "Exceeding authority" pretty much equals "illegal."
The claim that the BLM is managing wild horse herds to extinction is, ironically, a provable fact. Every herd management area that has been "zeroed out" (in which BLM has removed 100 percent of the horses present) is a location where a distinctive horse population (herd) is now extinct and not replaceable with horses of the herd's original genetic profile.
Perhaps "equine ethnic cleansing" may be a more contemporary term.
Ironically Abbey concludes his presentation with BLM's most notable myth, that only 17,300 wild horses ranged on public lands in 1971. (The reader is to conclude that range horse populations have increased since '71.) That "out of thin air" estimate was debunked decades ago when a subsequent "hard count" found 42,000 wild horses. There were more horses found just in Nevada than Abbey claimed for the entire country.
The profound problem we currently face is that there will be no practical and sustainable resolution to the present wild horse "crisis" until the spin and counterspin subside and the discussion gets down to hard facts and probabilities. Meanwhile, what everyone should be able to agree on is that BLM's present course is not sustainable. Given its history, BLM is not likely to produce viable solutions on its own.
Willis Lamm is communications officer for the Alliance of Wild Horse Advocates .
Vicki | A Voice for Our Horses

Sat Jan 16, 2010 5:18 am (PST)
----- Original Message -----
From: vicki tobin
To: vicki tobin
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2010 3:44 AM
Subject: Carrol Abel: Interior Department reaches out for public support of wild horse and burro program http://www.examiner.com/x-25094-LA-Equine-Policy-Examiner~y2010m1d15-Interior-Department-reaches-out-for-public-support-of-wild-horse-and-burro-program?cid=examiner-email
Interior Department reaches out for public support of wild horse and burro program
January 15, 1:16 PMLA Equine Policy ExaminerCarrol Abel
Ken Salazar, Department of the Interior photo/ Tami A. Heilimann DOI
Secretary Ken Salazar, U.S. Department of the interior, reached out for public support in the L.A. Times yesterday. His opinion article, At Home on the Range, laid out his thoughts on the history of wild horses in America then continued with a message intended to defend current wild horse and burro policy against a growing outcry from animal rights organizations.
As Secretary of the Interior, Salazar oversees eight major federal bureaus including the often maligned Bureau of Land Management, the agency mandated by Congress to preserve and protect the wild herds. Within months of his appointment by President Obama early last year, Salazar announced a plan to create non-producing herds on lands in the east and mid-west, stocking those from the over 30,000 wild horses currently in BLM holding facilities. Gelded herds are to be created on their existing ranges along with an escalation of birth control procedures for mares and the accelerated removal of horses currently living on western rangelands.
We must elevate the stature and care of wild horse herds that will sustainably live on Western ranges for generations to come. As Interior secretary, I am examining ways we can better showcase special herds in signature areas of the West to provide eco-tourism opportunities and provide them greater protection." says Salazar
Animal rights organizations view the current policy in a different light. Thousands of wild horse supporters are taking to the streets in protest, flooding the White House with phone calls and signing petitions demanding a moratorium on all wild horse roundups until Congress can craft a better plan.
The Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA), an umbrella organization with over 90 member organizations, issued a press release in response to the L.A. Times Article which states in part,
Today, it is the DOI on Salazar's watch that is entrusted to protect the wild herds but instead, is now the driving force managing the wild herds to the verge of extinction. Why? Because Salazar's rancher friends need more land to graze their 7.5 million cattle which now have to compete with only 30,000 wild horses."
EWA's response also speaks of concerns recently raised over the Ruby Pipeline, a natural gas transmission line scheduled to run through wild horse ranges. The California Heliostat Project will do the same. BLM and DOI officials have yet to publicly address either of these projects and their impact on wild horses.
To date, the Salazar article has received 61 comments - all negative. He does make one statement on which both sides can agree:
"The current situation is unsustainable."
Vicki | A Voice for Our Horses

For decades, America's wild horses have faced tremendous pressure from the government, ranchers, the livestock industry, state wildlife agencies and others who do not support the protection of these iconic animals on Western rangelands. The situation turned catastrophic last year when the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced that it was considering mass slaughter of wild horses in holding facilities as a means of balancing its books. Then a new proposal was offered by Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar to simply create additional holding facilities in the Midwest and East. The BLM seems incapable of protecting and maintaining these national treasures on the public lands that are their home. Yet, the answer is simple: wild horses need less intervention by the BLM, more non-lethal management when necessary, and more freedom to roam their
legal and traditional ranges.

Until the BLM’s Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros program is subject to a comprehensive review and restructuring, AWI recommends the following:

Congress needs to quickly pass the Restore our American Mustang Act (S. 1579). The bill easily passed the House of Representatives, but is awaiting action in the Senate. Visit AWI'S Compassion Index to send an email in support of this bill.

The Obama Administration must implement a moratorium on wild horse and burro roundups until a comprehensive review of all aspects of the wild horse and burro management program is completed. This would include the creation of a credible and scientifically rigorous census methodology and the development and implementation of a standardized method, considering biological, ecological, behavioral, and genetics factors, to determine how many wild horses western rangelands can support.

The Obama Administration must also restore wild horses and burros confined in holding facilities to the over 19 million acres of habitat from which they have been illegally removed since 1971. By returning horses to the wild, the federal government will save millions of dollars a year.

Wed Jan 13, 2010 5:11 am (PST)
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Arizona Horse Expo & New York City Protest This Weekend
Protests in Reno and Sacramento to follow
a.. The Arizona Horse Expo: Cloud Foundation Executive Director, Ginger Kathrens and Dances with Wolves author, Michael Blake, will speak together at the First Annual Arizona Horse Expo on January 16 and 17 in Tucson, Arizona. Please join them for what are sure to be entertaining and informative presentations about our wild horses! Tickets are on sale now - please visit our website calendar for more details. The Cloud Foundation will have a booth and Ginger will be signing Cloud books, DVDs, posters
and Breyer models to support the Foundation's work (also available at The Cloud Foundation's online store).
a.. New York City Protest: Expected to be the largest protest in wild horse history, all are encouraged to come to Columbus Circle (58th St at Central Park South) this Sunday, January 17th from 1-3pm. Bring friends and signs: stand up for wild horses in the west and call for an end to the tax-payer funded mismanagement of our wild herds. This protest is a collaborative effort organized by local advocate & mustang owner, Jo De George with support from The Cloud Foundation, Equine Welfare Alliance, In
Defense of Animals, Return to Freedom and 40 more coalition members of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign
a.. Next Week's Rallies: A protest is planned for Reno, Nevada on January 18th and a major protest will take place in Sacramento, California on
Thursday January 21st (orgnized by local advocates, TCF and In Defense of Animals). Details online.
Remember what Freedom just fought to regain and letâ€™s continue to work for the protection and preservation of our wild herds in their western ecosystems. The newly updated BLM roundup schedule is online here. The call for an immediate moratorium on roundups must continue - thank you for all your support.
Take Action Here.
Freedom-- photo by Craig Downer, 1/2/10 -- see the photo essay here
Take Action for our wild herds:
request immediate hearings on the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program
Join The Cloud Foundation on Twitter & Facebook & check our blog for updates
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BLM's Bob Abbey - BLM Photo
HOUSTON , (Horseback) – The federal Bureau of Land Management acknowledged today that it charges private ranchers nothing for wild horse removal from their property - horses that are removed by the thousands at taxpayer expense.

“If they stray on to private land, the landowner has the right to request BLM to come and remove the animals,” said spokeswoman JoLynn Worley of the agency’s Nevada office in response to a query by Horseback Magazine.

“The BLM does not charge the landowner to remove wild horses or burros from their private property,” Worley acknowledged.

Horseback Magazine has repeatedly sought an interview with director Bob Abbey to discuss such policies, rules and actions that have sparked growing protests from coast to coast as well as a petition drive that has reached the White House.

Many ranchers in the West consider wild horses a nuisance. They see the animals, living off the land as they have for centuries, as competition for scarce grazing land. The taxpayer owned property is leased at the rock bottom rate of $1.35 per animal unit per month.

Thousands of acres of private land abut the public land BLM administers, The agency plans to remove vast numbers of wild horses. Inevitably, those horses will stray onto the private property - and inevitably the BLM will be asked to remove the horses at no charge to the landowner.

More than a million head of cattle graze on BLM land, compared to about 30,000 or fewer wild horses.

"The BLM's business acumen is mind boggling,” said John Holland, a Virginia technology consultant and founder of the Chicago based Equine Welfare Alliance.

“They pay millions of dollars to sweep healthy horses off private and public land so they can pay more millions to warehouse them and then rent the cleared land to cattle raisers for a loss of 80 cents on the dollar in administrative costs.”

Tens of thousands of horses are held in giant pens across the West in pastures owned by private interests while the agency administers 260 million acres, most of it vacant.

Holland charges this government “privatization” or the warehousing of horses that once roamed and grazed their natural habitat at no cost to the taxpayer is welfare for the ranchers who receive lucrative government contracts.

"Ironically, the BLM is doing this with "stimulus" funds,” Holland continued. “Apparently they are under the assumption they are supposed to be stimulating the national debt."

Landowner, Greg Foster, who owns property in the Calico Mountains of Northern Nevada is cooperating with BLM on its current "gather" there. The agency claims the wild horses it is stampeding with a low flying helicopter are in mountainous terrain.

Spokesmen say that the bureau is only setting up a holding pen and storing equipment on Foster’s property. Since press and public have been barred from witnessing the roundup except during tightly controlled “media days,” there is no way to independently determine if the BLM is herding wild horses found on the landowner’s property.

Horseback Magazine has learned that during a recent flyover of the Calico "gather" area where thousands of wild horses are alleged by the BLM to live, only nine were counted.

Activists claim the BLM is also using birth control drugs to make the remaining herds genetically bankrupt and unable to propogate. They claim there will be no wild horses roaming free unless the BLM roundups and activities are stopped.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) La., has called for a revamp of the agency from top to bottom.

Worley, the BLM spokeswoman, claims the government has taken no horses on Foster’s land, yet there have been no witnesses allowed to watch and confirm the veracity of the agency’s claims.

The agency claims the horses are driven from the Nevada highlands into the pen set up on Foster’s property.

The BLM has refused to release any more information about the landowner other than his name.

Sun Jan 10, 2010 3:49 pm (PST)
----- Original Message -----
From: vicki tobin
To: vicki tobin
Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2010 6:38 PM
Subject: EWA Alert | January 16 - Media in Gerlach, NY
Hi Folks, as you know, the BLM gave a dog and pony roundup demo to the press in December and were unchallenged in many statements we know to be false.
Now they are doing a second demo and we simply MUST find a way to get our side represented to the press there.
We know for a fact that German TV and Good Morning American will be there at a minimum.
This is a tremendous opportunity. Please let me know if you can be there - john@equinewelfarealliance.org.The event will start at 8AM on January 16th.
Bruno's Country Club and Motel445 Main
Gerlach, Nevada 89412775-557-2220
approx. 40 rooms/ some BLM are staying there.
1.5 hours north of Reno.
Rooms price from
smaller 49.00
standard 66.50
Larger 77.00
Ask for MarkYou can contact me at 540-268-5693. If you are interested in helping in coordinating this, let me know!
John
John Holland | Vicki Tobin | Laura Allen | Shelley Sawhook

Event Location: Red Rock Canyon, Nevada Event Date and Time: January 10, 2010 from 12:00 Noon to 3:00 PMEvent Venue: At the roadside near the Red Rock Canyon scenic overlook. Venue Directions: To reach the spectacular overlook, from the 215 West beltway and Charleston Ave, take Charleston west toward the mountains, but continue several miles beyond the entrance to the scenic overlook on the west (right) side of the highway. Event Description: Regional Protest of the Calico Wild Horse Roundup Event Organizers: Cloud Foundation [not verified]

Wild Horses: The Winter of Our Discontent - Protests Around the Country
Posted: 08 Jan 2010 08:54 AM PST
It's a cold winter this year, made even colder by the unresponsiveness of our government to the plight of our wild horses. Right now, at the coldest time of the year, the BLM is rounding up over 2700 horses in northern Nevada, and horses are being injured and are dying in the harsh winter conditions. Despite a U.S. District Court Judge's recommendation, and despite protests by wild horse advocates around the country and even internationally, the BLM is proceeding with this roundup at a cost of almost 2 million dollars to the American taxpayer.
Never before has the public turned out to protest the actions of the Bureau of Land Management, but of course never before has that agencies abuses in managing wild horse been so blatant. When lawsuits fail and thousands upon thousands of letters, phone calls, faxes and emails fall on deaf ears, then all that is left is our freedom of speech, and protests have a way of attracting media attention that all those letters and phone calls and emails have failed to do.
Yesterday over thirty wild horse advocates assembled in Denver in spite of the bitterly cold weather. We gathered in front of Senator Mark Udall's office building in downtown Denver. Senator Udall is on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in the Senate, and this is the committee where the ROAM Act languishes. Senator Udall has not come out in support of the ROAM Act and wild horses - neither has he come out against it. Ginger Kathrens, Makendra Silverman and I met with Kate Zimmerly in Senator Udall's office to discuss our concerns and to ask for Senator Udall's support after the protest.
Protests continue as the roundup in Nevada continues, and we continue to call and write and email. This is the time to stand strong - something has got to give.
Thank you to all of you who are protesting, writing and calling and emailing - you DO make a difference.
For a list of upcoming protests go here:http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/index.php/news-events-a-media/events
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The Big Story

BLM Closes Door to Communication

By Steven Long

HOUSTON, (Horseback) - The federal Bureau of Land Management has ceased communicating with Horseback Magazine.

On December 31, the magazine sent several pointed questions to the bureau and copied the email to its director Bob Abbey. The agency has not responded since, despite follow-up emails to both its Nevada spokesperson, Heather Emmons, and it's chief Washington spokesman, Tom Gorey.

The magazine has also repeatedly asked for an interview with BLM Director Bob Abbey only to be rebuffed again and again.

Horseback Magazine has formalized its requests through inquiries utalizing the Fredom of Information Act. The BLM is required by law to respond to such a request.

Meanwhile, the BLM has increasingly founded itself wrapped in scandal as protests have mounted from coast to coast over its "gaqther" of a proposed 2,500 wild horses from their native habitat.

'The agency plans to put some of the horses up for adoption and hold the remainder in massive pens at taxpayer expense..

Horseback Online will continue to cover the ongoing capture of horses in Nevada's rugged Calico Mountains.

The following is a report on yesterday's capture from a source who declined to be identified.

"There were approx 150 horses on site.

"They had separated the 2 mares with their 2 foals and the newly orphaned foal from the rest of the horses.. keeping them at t

"he front - two of the foals were lame! The mares and stallions were in two large separate pens on the back side of the lot, next to each other and the yearlings were next to the mares.

"I noticed a few lame mares.

" We saw no brands on any horses. They were all being fed oat hay. It was roughly 18 degrees today, no wind, but fairly foggy.
The horses were mostly huddled in groups.. many seemed like their spirits had already been broken. They were very skiddish. Much like other holding facilities, it was very barren. The place is brand new.. several workers on site welding and setting up pens, etc..
"The last public observation day for the round up was Saturday and the next one is Wed. They will be rounding up from the other side of the range in the Soldier Meadows area next. The horses are loaded from the trap site the following morning after the round up and taken to holding. This site is geared to hold 2800 horses. It's a very sad thought to think that one day soon it will be all filled up with wild horses that should be roaming free."

The same sourse reported to Horseback late Tuesday.

"Spent the day on the range attempting to site all the "excess" horses. 12 hours later.. all day on the Calico range, we sited 7 wild horses. 6 in a band and one stallion on his own.

" I hope the BLM has even more trouble finding them... like you say.. it's hard to phathom.. hundreds of thousands of acres of land, yet no room for these wild horses and burros? the truth is that there is no excess.. of course we all know that."

Sent: Sun Jan 3 06:22:55 2010
To: <>;
Cc: <>;
Subject: LEXINGTON,KY WILDHORSE PROTEST AT RUPP ARENA
In concert with The Cloud Foundation (http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/), a group of horse lovers from the Lexington area are planning a live protest of the current round up being conducted by the Bureau of Land Management in Arizona of America's Wild Horses. We call it "Wild Horse Wednesday" and we will be present for an hour behind Rupp Arena in the park by the fountain with our miniature horses and signs from 1:30 - 2:30pm January 6.
Because we live in the Horse Capital of the World we feel particularly duty bound to express concern over the inhumane methods being employed to cull these herds - and wish to re-establish dialogue. For updated info please see:http://www.equineconnection.org/event.php?event_id=10
I also invite you to consider getting updated tweets by following: http://www.twitter.com/merryhorses
Please help us spread the word. Forward this on to any media contacts you may have and folks you think might consider attending. It is only an hour, and there will be ultra cute miniature horses to pet! This could very well have a good impact on turning things back around in the stunted compassion currently being practiced by the Bureau of Land Management. We are calling on them to improve their stewardship over these wonderful beings. If they need better resources then we are calling for these to be made known so people may step up and offer assistance as necessary. As members of the citizenry of the Horse Capital of the World we can no longer be silent on this issue.
-
Gale/Rebazgr2
Rebazgr2 Wiki Page www.scerasinc.orgwww.scerasforum.org
They all deserve a second chance.
Second Chance Equine Rescue and Sanctuary

Please forward & cross post, thanks!
Great news - momentum is building for Thursday's wild horse rally in Albany NY! We hope you can make it.
*Attached - flyer with new locale*

Does anybody have access to a *bull horn* (hand held amplified talk-thru microphone) to borrow for the day? If so, please email me at equine.friends.ny@gmail.com (equine.friends.ny @ gmail.com) or call 518-245-8010

We may have a surprise guest to announce shortly. Please spread the word, and thank you for all your support.
For the horses, Susan
PS Please RSVP if you are planning to attend.
---Date: Thursday Jan 7
Time: 11 am - 1 pmWhere: NEW! West Capitol Park at the New York State Capitol ( South Swan Street between State Street and Washington Avenue , Albany , NY 12210 )
What: Peaceful gathering to protest the illegal BLM roundups in the Calicos, call for a moratorium on the roundups
Who: You, friends, family!
Bring: Posters - for ideas visit www.thecloudfoundation.org
parking link: http://www.ogs.state.ny.us/visiting/gettingAround/defaultParking.html
---
Member of: www.equinewelfarealliance.org
forwarded by:
Robin J. Yager, Director
Network Partners for Animals*
* We do not sanction any groups' ethics or actions and offer the Network Partners Group as a networking resource tool.

Spring Farm CARES
3364 Route 12
Clinton, NY 13323
315-790-1404http://www.springfarmcares.org (no spaces)
Life is as dear to the mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wants
happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not to die, so
do other creatures. ~ His Holiness The Dalai Lama

“Pure propaganda” was Bureau of Land Management (BLM) spokesperson Tom Gorey’s reaction in a recent AP interview when asked about the growing accusations that his agency is in the process of virtually exterminating the very herds of wild horses and burros that it is supposed to protect.

However, Gorey’s denial of the BLM’s intentions rings false in the light of recently uncovered documents from the BLM itself and of its own published plans and estimates. It is not possible to interpret these in any way other than a plan to virtually eradicate the wild herds.

Two internal-use BLM reports were obtained earlier this year through the Freedom of Information Act; Alternative Management Options Plans from October 2008 and the Team Conference Calls Report from July - September 2008. In these documents, BLM members presented, analyzed and discussed several management plans aimed at reducing the population of the wild horses on the range as well as
those in holding facilities.
Proposals for reducing the populations included adjusting herd sex ratios with some of the horses returned being gelded, and an increased use of the contraceptive PZP, the use of other unauthorized fertility drugs called Gonacon and SpayVac and even surgical sterilization of mares (a process that has resulted in 10% mortality).
Also found in the Team Conference Calls report were these notes submitted by Don Glenn:

"Sally had an e-mail from a person in Canada who wants 10,000 horses that he would slaughter the horses and send them to a third world country. Don is going to send the email. Jim said he has a demand for horses going to Denmark, but they are having a problem getting titled horses."

Adding further to the plan for sending wild horses to foreign countries, the following recommendations were submitted to BLM from BLM's advisory board members at the June 15th, 2009, Advisory Board Meeting held in Sacramento, Ca:

"that BLM advertise and market sale eligible animals (with the intent clause) in foreign countries with known good homes by offering "select sales" for sale eligible animals 11 years of age and over, and for younger animals that have been offered for adoption three times during a 90 day period and that BLM continue to explore opportunities to foster foreign aid by providing sale eligible animals (with the intent clause) to foreign countries for agricultural (nonfood) use."

The BLM's response to these recommendations was that it is considering these plans as part of a 5 year strategy plan.
Clearly, the BLM has already been corresponding with foreign countries to market the wild horses with the intent to send the horses to slaughter. The board recommendation that the sales include the “intent clause” was clearly a fig leaf. The BLM is well aware that it would be impossible to enforce the intent clause in foreign countries.
But if that were not an obvious enough fig leaf, then the reference to “countries with known good homes” is a laughable one. It comes as no surprise that the notes from Don Glenn, who is also a member of the advisory board, were not mentioned at the advisory board meeting.

While Tom Gorey may continue to claim that it's pure propaganda that the BLM is in the process of eliminating the wild horses, the notes regarding the slaughter of our wild horses in foreign countries, combined with the advisory board recommendation to sell the horses to foreign countries proves otherwise.

The BLM’s plan is now clear. They will first ignore the 1971 Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act and gather virtually all the wild herds, working year-round until only a few small, sterile bands remain free. If delayed in one place, they will simply shift their schedule and gather at another as they did with Buckhorn when Calico was delayed.

The cost of feeding these captured horses, along with the 37,000 already in holding, will then precipitate an enormous financial crisis. This will leave the BLM with no option but to euthanize or ship to slaughter most of the horses in holding.

Terry emailed me and just found out the SCI is the Safari Club, not Sierra Club that joined the law suit. Although the Sierra Club is anti horse as well as you saw by Rose Strickland’s article, they are not the org that joined the law suit. A few people had questioned it but all we had was SCI.

Terry let the folks know that sent her the info - and something we should all do – spell out the names so it is clear.

In keeping with my commitment to protect America's wild horses, I thought it important to provide you with an update of where we are with the plans to build a sanctuary for thousands of wild horses currently in holding pens across the country and to inform you of a new initiative I am launching on another front: the wild horse gather schedule that has been proposed by the Bureau of Land Management.

Nearly 18 months ago I launched the effort to buy a ranch in Nevada to build a state of the art wild horse sanctuary that would be home to thousands of wild horses that currently stand in holding pens, their fate uncertain. At the time I began this odyssey, there was talk of euthanizing thousands of the wild horses that were and remain in BLM's holding facilities. We were able to take that discussion off the table, though many horses are still going to slaughter in Mexico , and we proceeded to circulate the plan from my Foundation to build a sanctuary that would provide a permanent home for the horses and be accessible as an educational and tourist destination for the American people. We met with every official within the Department of Interior, including Secretary Salazar, assistant
secretaries, the new BLM Director, Bob Abbey, and many members of Congress, along with their staff.

Secretary Salazar has embraced the idea of public/private partnerships and creating what he calls "preserves," basically along the lines of the proposal I submitted for the sanctuary in Nevada, with one significant difference; he wants to build them in the Midwest or the East, far from the natural habitat of the wild horses and their natural range, Nevada and the other states in the West. His announcement also included plans for two "preserves" that the BLM would buy with $96 million dollars of taxpayer money that would house a total of around 7,000 wild horses.

While the Secretary was making his recent announcement to create "preserves" for wild horses, he also laid out his plans for other management activities with the wild horses. Included in his proposal was the announcement that the BLM is going to gather between 12,000 and 13,000 wild horses in the next calendar year, beginning later this month. This proposed gather schedule threatens the very survival of the remaining wild horse herds in the western United States and must be stopped.

Among the many things I have discovered during 18 months of negotiating with the BLM is that their management style goes from crisis to crisis, never quite achieving any resolution of a major problem before a new one arises. At the time I began the discussion of a sanctuary for wild horses, there were 33,000 of them in various holding facilities, some short term and some long term. There are still 33,000 wild horses in holding facilities, some that have been in the same facility for up to two years, and still no answer to that problem. The holding facilities now managed by the BLM are full to the maximum and they are having difficulty finding more long term holding, another concept unique to their management style and arguably not consistent with their mandate under the law to "preserve and protect" wild horses for future generations.

In spite of the fact that all the facilities are full, they propose to gather another 12,000 horses with virtually no place to put them. Even if the Secretary's announced plans to buy and create two preserves could be done, it could not be accomplished for another one to three years at the earliest and that is assuming that the Congress will appropriate the money, an assumption that is unlikely given the current budget crisis. And yet my Foundation plan to build a sanctuary using private dollars for the purchase of the land languishes on some bureaucrat's desk.

Rest assured I will not give up on the plan to build the sanctuary so the American people have a place where they can come and witness the majesty and grace of our great legacy, the wild horses. But I must also turn my attention to what I consider the current crisis and challenge, the gathering of 12,000 or more wild horses.

There are many reasons why we must stop this massive gather. To begin with, there is a legitimate dispute over the number of wild horses remaining on the range, and the BLM number of over 30,000 must be called into question. There have been repeated calls for new census methodology to be utilized to determine the actual number of wild horses remaining on the ranges in the western United States . The BLM has resisted these calls and relied on outdated and ineffective methods of counting horses. Before we know how many wild horses actually remain on the range, we cannot allow 12,000 or more to be gathered.

Over 21 million acres of land originally designated as Herd Management Area available to our wild horses has been taken away from them. This was done by zeroing out over 100 Herd Management Areas designated by the original Will Horse and Burro Act legislation. The BLM committed over a year ago to produce a report on the status of those lands, yet nothing has been forthcoming in that regard. In most cases, those 21 million acres are now being grazed by cattle.

Another argument not being taken into consideration deals with the genetics of the herd structure of many of the herds and bands of wild horses designated for gathers in the coming year. Many equine scientists have written and discussed the issue of genetics and many have concluded that taking existing herd numbers below certain levels will have a devastating effect on the future reproduction rates and activities of those herds. The BLM is not applying a scientific approach to the issue of genetics when designing these gathers and the result of ignoring these issues could easily result in the future disappearance of these wild horse herds through sickness and disease or inferior breeding.

As I mentioned earlier, there is no room for 12,000 additional wild horses in the BLM's existing facilities. Gathering them without a plan that addresses where to put them will only result in another round of discussion about euthanasia and slaughter.

I am launching an effort to stop these proposed gathers and I will engage at many different levels in order to succeed. Your continued monitoring and support of the wild horses is greatly appreciated and I ask you to continue to check my website (www.MadeleinesMustangs.org) for updates on my efforts to stop the gathers and to get the sanctuary built. Together we can succeed in protecting our wild horses for future generations.

Thank you,

Madeleine Pickens

Saving America’s Mustangs last month announced the formation of a 25-member Advisory Board consisting of prominent entertainment and sports figures. The Committee presently consists of:

About Saving America ’s Mustangs
Wild horses are a living symbol of our American heritage and freedom. These Mustangs must be protected. Businesswoman and philanthropist Madeleine Pickens is committed to this promise. Through her Foundation, citizens from all walks of life are uniting to create a permanent home, a Sanctuary, to save these magnificent national treasures.

HOBOKEN, (M&T) - As practically all of us already know, the 'Wild Horse Annie Act of 1971' was passed largely due to a letter writing campaign by school children. These were handwritten letters to representatives and senators, and sometimes letters to President Richard Nixon. In an era where email and petitions are so easy to fall back on, activism can easily be renamed 'slacktivism.' It is easier to fill out a form and press 'send' and feel confident that you have made a difference. This is not always the case.

Parents and teachers should encourage their young children to write to President Obama's daughters Sasha and Malia. Children should write their letters in their own words and handwriting. Even if the First Lady never allows her daughters to see these letters, it will draw attention to the plight of the wild horses and burros. Eventually, President Obama will hear about it and hopefully enforce the moratorium and direct Secretary Salazar to completely reorganize the management of the BLM, Forest Service, Parks Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service so that these agencies are no longer perpetrators of a genocide, which is exactly what they have been for years. Besides the wild horses and burros, there are the wolves, the polar bears and other species some of which have actually been removed from the Endangered Species List. This has been done by Secretary
Salazar whom has given our public lands to the welfare ranchers such as Monsanto on a silver platter.

Famed Wildlife Ecologist Craig Downer has provided the names of the wild horse herds. We are encouraging individuals, towns, and cities to adopt a herd. Of course, since American tax payers are already paying for the horses and burros stolen from the range, and those few still on the range, we need not worry about having to pledge any funds to claim them as ours. They are already our horses and burros and we must drive that point home.

Here are the names and locations of the herds:

NW Nevada there is:

the Calico Mountain herd
the Warm Springs herd
the Black Rock West and the Black Rock East herds
the Soldier Meadows herd
the High Rock herd
the Granite Mountain herd just north of Gerlach

In Central Nevada there is:
the Monte Cristo herd
the Revelle herd
the Nellis herd
the Montgomery Pass herd
In Southern Nevada there is:

the Red Rock herd
the Wheeler Pass herd
the Spring Mountain herd

In Western Nevada there is:

the Pine Nut herd
the Clan Alpine herd
the Wassuk herd

In Utah there is the Sulphur herd.

In Colorado there is Little Bookcliffs herd.

In Wyoming there is Adobe Town herd.

In Oregon there is the Kiger herd in Steen Mountains.

In Montana there is the Pryor Mountain Herd.

There are more than enough herds to be metaphorically adopted. Once your town or city adopts a herd, make the local media aware of it. Someone in your town or city should be the sponsor for this endeavor. Meet with the local Chamber of Commerce or the Mayor's office to 'officially' adopt your herd.

An advocate(Nicole)contributed this next piece.Very interesting!I wish someone could locate the actual link to this article.I think it would be an important piece of info to send legislators:

The newspaper "Animal People" had an interesting article.
The Support Senate Bill 1579 a.k.a as the ROAM (restore our mustangs act)
The Govt. Accounting Office (GAO) reports that we pay 144 million to manage the the private livestock grazing program. This program only generates 21 million in land use fees. If that program ended and the land is restored to the public and Mustangs, there would be no over population problem. This does not take into account the effect on the livestock industry or our agricultural industry as a whole but it raised my eyebrow.

Agency Says it Will Go Ahead With Roundup

CHICAGO, (EWA) – Wild horse advocates from around the US reacted with dismay and outrage Wednesday as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced that the Calico Complex round-up of over 2,700 wild horses will proceed on December 28 as planned. Despite receiving over 10,000 public comments on the impending round-up, the BLM turned a tin ear to the public outcry and indicated it will sign a “No Impact” decision. A no impact decision means that the public comments sent to the BLM had absolutely no impact on their decision to move forward with the round-up.

This egregious decision further perpetuates the perception that the BLM is managing the wild herds to extinction. John Holland, EWA President said of the decision:

“The BLM is operating in direct opposition to the very law that they are charged with enforcing (the 1971 Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act). This outrageous decision makes a mockery of the whole public comment process.”

The decision comes during a perfect storm of public outrage calling for a moratorium on wild horse and burro round-ups. During the past week, the number of organizations and dignitaries supporting the moratorium has grown to 180. Among the recent dignitaries joining the call were, Bill Maher of HBOs hit series, Real Time with Bill Maher, author of Dances with Wolves, Michael Blake, Genesis Award winner of the movie Blinders, Donny Moss, John Paul DeJoria, CEO & Co-Founder of John Paul Mitchell Systems, Jorja Fox, from the hit series CSI, Neal Schon, Multi Platinum Recording Artist and founding member of the rock band Journey, and comedienne Lily Tomlin.

Actor and Social activist, Mariana Tosca, said today "With no oversight and no independent assessment, the Bureau ofLand Management is running roughshod over the rights these horses were guaranteed by the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971, reducing herds without any statutory authority to do so.“ Ms. Tosca and Viggo Mortensen were early proponents for the unified call for a moratorium.

Wednesday also marked the deadline forthe public to submit comments for the BLM Advisory Board meeting that will be held on Monday, December 7.

The bureau turned a deaf ear to public comment during their last meeting in Washington D.C., cutting short many prominent wild horse advocates as they attempted to address the board. Many ofthose trying to comment today online reported they were unable to do so because the BLM mailbox was full and not accepting new email.

“We are encouraging the public to attend the meeting and voice their opinion on the blatant mismanagement our wild herds”, said Vicki Tobin, vice president of the EWA.The only remaining chance for the Calico Complex horses to remain free is a lawsuit filed on behalf of the Calico Complex herds by In Defense of Animals and EWA advisor Craig Downer. The case is scheduled to be heard on December 16th. The EWA is optimistic that the court will find the BLM in violation of the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act as a Colorado court has done previously.

The Big Story

GAO Set to Begin Hasty and Brief Horse Industry Audit

WASHINGTON DC, (AHC) In January, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) will begin a study of the status of horse welfare in the US as it relates to the closing of the slaughter plants. The report is to be completed by March 1, 2010. GAO will be studying how the horse industry has responded to the plant closings in terms of horse sales, exports, adoptions and abandonments. In addition, GAO is instructed to review the impact that the closures have had on farm income and state and local government organizations.

It is important that the horse industry provide whatever information it has so that the GAO can do a complete study. We want to be sure that the GAO is aware of all that the industry has done over the last few years to deal with the horses that may have gone to slaughter if the plants had been operating.

The AHC is compiling information on this issue and the industry’s response to this problem; it will be provided to GAO. It is important that you assign this task to someone at your organization who can compile this information and make it available to the AHC within the next few weeks.

The study was requested by Congress. The GAO is an independent federal agency that Congress often turns to for reports and analysis of important issues. GAO evaluates federal programs and policies; and provides analyses, recommendations, and other data to help Congress make informed policy, and funding decisions on issues before it.

Specifically, GAO is directed to study the following issues:

How the horse industry has responded to the closure of U.S. horse slaughter facilities in terms of both the numbers of horse sales, exports, adoptions, or abandonments;

The implications these changes have had on farm income and trade;

The extent to which horses in the United States are slaughtered for any purpose;

Any impacts to State and local governments and animal protection organizations;

How the Department oversees the transport of horses destined for slaughter in foreign countries, particularly Canada and Mexico;

The manner in which the Department coordinates with the Department of the Interior and State governments to assist them in identifying, holding and transporting unwanted horses for foreign export; and

General conclusions regarding the welfare of horses as a result of a ban on horse slaughter for human consumption.

While GAO will look to others, like USDA, state and local governments, and horse care organizations, for some of this information, the horse industry has an opportunity and obligation to provide some of it. For example, the horse industry can provide the following information to GAO:

Information on what has been done by your organization, facility, or event to deal with these unwanted horses. This would include educational efforts, such as articles in you magazines or periodicals (provide copies), retraining programs, fundraising efforts, associating with equine care or use facilities, etc;

The effect of unwanted horses on sales and auctions of your horses, on income to your members, on foreign trade;

Copies of any articles or reports you have from national or local newspapers or news programs or your members or others on unwanted horses, abandoned or neglected horses, etc.;

Any stories you have regarding successes in caring for or finding new homes or activities for these horses;

Any programs your organization has instituted to help ensure that no horse becomes unwanted; information about horses in need on your website; any resources you have made available to help owners with their horses; any means you have instituted to allow owners to track their horses so they can be returned for care if necessary; any programs you have to provide direct assistance, like feed or funding, to help owners; any programs to assist in population control, like gelding programs;

In sum, any information that will illustrate the efforts that the industry has made to deal with this problem of unwanted horses and any information on the effects of closing the plants.

Wildlife Management Workshop:

PLEASE CROSS POST WHERE APPROPRIATE.

The Lyon County Advisory Board to Manage Wildlife will be holding a

workshop session on Monday evening, December 7th, regarding the Winecup

Gamble wild horse sanctuary proposal. Gary Weisbart, Manager of the

Winecup Gamble ranch will explain the details involved in this 1 million

acre sanctuary proposal and provide the range science data used to

formulate Winecup's management strategies. During the "workshop"

portion of the meeting, citizens present can ask questions about the

proposal and also make comments.

The meeting will be held in the commons (multi-purpose room) of the

Silver Stage High School, 3755 W. Spruce (South off US-50,) in Silver

Springs, NV.

Please note that the meeting will commence at 7.00 PM (instead of the

Board's usual earlier meeting time) in order to provide enough time for

persons attending the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board to

travel to Silver Springs.

No matter how folks stand on the issue of wild horse sanctuaries and

alternative habitats, this meeting will provide an opportunity for all

interested parties to learn about a significantly researched proposal

and have their questions answered. Please note that the purpose of this

meeting / workshop is to provide public access to information and to

replace rumor and speculation with facts and dialogue. The Board is not

----- Original Message -----
From: vicki tobin
To: vicki tobin
Sent: Sunday, November 29, 2009 2:40 PM
Subject: EWA News | Kids for Mustangs
Please cross post and send to your groups.
Laura Leigh is adding a Wild Horse Annie page to her Rescue Friends Children's site http://www.therescuefriends.com/id19.html. As part of the page, she'd like to get kids involved and is going to add comments from kids on Mustangs. She will send them a certificate of appreciation with an 'official' Rescue Friend seal for participating.
Laura would also like to take the comments to the BLM meeting on December 7 as part of our Moratorium campaign to show kid's support as well as individuals, organizations and dignitaries. Comments should be sent to Laura at Belle@therescuefriends.com (Belle @ therescuefriends.com) or laura@barndoorstudio.com (laura @ barndoorstudio.com) along with the child's name, age, city and state. Only the first name and age will be displayed on the comments
unless the parents specify that the full information should be displayed. Please also indicate permission to include the comment in the package for the December 7 meeting.
Thanks much for your help!

Many thanks to those writing letters and being a voice for the wild horses and burros.

Robin

forwarded message:

Robin,

Wanted to give you good breaking news, with thanks for all your good work for the horses. We are being heard. This is only a month delay ... the roundup was slated to start next week ... but a lifetime for a young foal in the winter range.
Best Thanksgiving wishes to you and yours.

Thank you,
Susan

--

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contacts: William Spriggs, Esq., (202) 452-6051;
Eric Kleiman, 717-939-3231
Nevada Mustangs Given 28-Day Reprieve
IDA Lawsuit Postpones Huge Wild Horse Roundup
Washington, DC (November 24, 2009) - The U.S. Department of Justice announced tonight that the massive roundup and removal of thousands of horses from public land in northwestern Nevada will be delayed until December 28 as a direct result of the filing of a lawsuit by In Defense of Animals and renowned ecologist Craig Downer on November 23.
Tomorrow, IDA and Mr. Downer plan to file a motion for a permanent injunction, with supporting affidavits from horse experts and eyewitnesses to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) roundups. The motion will ask Judge Paul L. Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to stop the roundup altogether.
The roundup and removal of 80-90 percent of the estimated 3,055 wild horses living in the BLM's Calico Mountain Complex was originally scheduled to begin December 1. The BLM has received over 10,000 public comments in opposition to the roundup.
"We welcome this moratorium on the capture and inhumane treatment of the Calico horses," said William Spriggs, Esq. of Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney, pro bono attorney for IDA and Mr. Downer. "The BLM plan for a massive helicopter roundup of these horses is entirely illegal."
"We are confident that the court will agree that America's wild horses are protected by law from BLM’s plan to indiscriminately chase and stampede them into corrals for indeterminate warehousing away from their established habitat," he said. "The magnificent wild horses and burros of the American West are an important part of our national heritage and must be preserved."
The Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act, passed unanimously by Congress in 1971, designated America's wild horses and burros as "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West," specifying they "shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death … [and that] to accomplish this they are to be considered in the area where presently found, as an integral part of the natural system of public lands.”

Since 1971, the BLM has removed over 270,000 horses from their Western home ranges and taken away nearly 20 million acres of wild horse habitat. Only 37,000 wild horses and burros remain on public lands in the West. By contrast, millions of cattle graze our public lands. Thirty-two thousand wild horses who have been removed from the range are already held in government holding facilities, and the BLM intends to round up 12,000 more horses in FY 2010.
###

In Defense of Animals is an international animal protection organization located in San Rafael, Calif. dedicated to protecting animals’ rights, welfare, and habitat through education, outreach, and our hands-on rescue facilities in Mumbai, India, Cameroon, Africa, and rural Mississippi.
--
Member of: www.equinewelfarealliance.org

forwarded by:

Robin J. Yager, Director
Network Partners for Animals*
* We do not sanction any groups' ethics or actions and offer the Network Partners Group as a networking resource tool.

I took another look at the federal register announcement for the WH&B meeting on the Dec. 7. They accept email comments!!!! Knowing that so few advocates can actually be present, maybe we can make ourselves known through e-mail comments. Just published an article in hopes of spurring that kind of action. We have to hit them from every angle possible and hit them HARD. Here is the link to the article and to the federal registerEmail comments to:

IDAHO
Martha Hahn has been forced out of her job as the Idaho state director of the Bureau of Land Management in a housecleaning move by J. Steven Griles, deputy secretary of the Interior.
Hahn announced on March 7 that she would resign rather than take a position with the National Park Service overseeing New York Harbor operations. Hahn says Griles notified her by letter that the Park Service post was her only option.
"There wasn't even any discussion about what my choices might be," Hahn tells High Country News. "That was disappointing."
Hahn served in the $120,000 post as Idaho state director for seven years and was widely seen as a person who took a low-profile role in her job. She was one of five women who were named BLM state directors under the Clinton administration (HCN, 12/12/94: BLM: The next generation).
Environmentalists accuse Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, of orchestrating her departure because she backed grazing cutbacks in the Owyhee Mountains in southwest Idaho. "I think Martha got hammered because she wasn't intervening enough on behalf of the ranchers," says Gene Bray of the Western Watersheds Project.
But Craig denies responsibility. "It's not unusual in a new administration that these positions change hands," Craig told The Idaho Statesman. "We have a lot of issues in Idaho, part of which are a product of her leadership or the lack (thereof). It's time for new blood and new direction."
Jeff Ruch, executive director of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), says Hahn's removal is disturbing because she wasn't given a reasonable chance to stay with the agency.
"She's a civil servant, not a political appointee," Ruch says. "The Interior Secretary (Gale Norton) is not only shifting employees around, she's trying to drive people like Martha Hahn out of public service."

BLM Plan Could Make the Mustang as Rare as the Buffalo

By Steven Long

HOUSTON, (Horseback) – Of the 14,000 wild horses the Bureau of Land Management will take from their wilderness homes next year, the agency will only return 2,200 to the wild.

A substantial number of the horses taken in BLM “gathers” will be mares. And of those, the agency says it will render 800 incapable of reproducing, or almost 40 percent of the heard strength returning to the wild. Equine geneticists claim the government’s plan is to eliminate wild horses from the American West in favor of cattle leases where ranchers pay a $1.35 per head per month.

Under this formula, there will be precious few Mustangs left in the West a generation from now. Wild horse lovers claim it is a rape of the national wildlife heritage comparable to the 19th century destruction of the buffalo herds that once roamed the land.

The BLM claims the horses are hard on the land, but currently there are only slightly more than 30,000 left in the wild according to the agency. That number is hotly disputed by animal welfare advocates. More than 1 million cows graze on the public acreage, yet the agency never complains of bovine damage to meadows and riparian areas.

The agency controls 262 million acres.

The government claims wild horses breed resulting in a 20 percent each increase in herd size each year resulting in an ever growing population. Yet entire foal crops are wiped out in some herd management areas each year by predators such as wolves and mountain lions. There are only slightly more than 60,000 wild horses left, and half are already in BLM holding pens eating government feed, hay, and grazing land at an ever growing cost to the taxpayer.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, (D) Louisiana, has called for the BLM to submit a report next year on how it plans to change what is currently perceived as gross mismanagement.

The agency says no herd management areas will be left bare of wild horses after next year’s roundups, however, anecdotal reports coming into Horseback’s offices this week tell another story. No wild horses can be found on a Nevada refuge after an October roundup, sauces say, yet the BLM claims horses are still there? Perhaps they are ghosts who only appear to government bureaucrats? Observers suffering from eye strain wonder.

The drug of choice to render mares incapable of reproducing is PZP. It is provided to the agency in a cozy deal with the Humane Society of the United States. Activists charge the nation’s largest animal welfare operation has a conflict of interest when it comes to wild horses.

Some have become increasingly aggravated with a perceived lack of action on the part of the HSUS, as well as the Washington based Animal Welfare Institute to halt BLM’s aggressive roundup schedule. In fact, HSUS applauded a BLM plan announced recently by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to remove wild horse herds from the west and place them as tourist attractions in the Midwest and East. Wild horse experts scoff at the plan.

Neither HSUS or AWI has lent their name or prestige to a petition demanding President Obama call a moratorium on BLM roundups of wild horses. The hard hitting petition has been submitted to the White House by The Cloud Foundation and the Equine Welfare Alliance.

Frustration with HSUS boiled over when EWA co-founder John Holland wrote last week to Wayne Pacelle, CEO of the Humane Society, regarding the perception that the relationship with BLM appears to be too cozy.

“ Have you given any consideration to how HSUS is gradually being made more and more complicit in this rapidly expanding assault on our wild herds? Are you comfortable with that complicity?” Holland wrote. “It is now clear that the BLM is planning for the elimination or eventual extinction of the herds. I am deeply concerned that HSUS may be drawn into a ballooning potential scandal.”

Pacelle didn’t give Holland the courtesy of a reply, instead directing a wildlife scientist with HSUS to respond.

“The HSUS supports the use of contraception as a management tool to bring horses to, and maintain, viable populations on the range,” wrote Stephanie Boyles. “The HSUS does not support the gather and removal of any wild horse, except in cases in which the health or safety of an individual horse is in question, for which there is not the probability of locating an appropriate adoptive home.”

forwarded by:

Robin J. Yager, Director
Network Partners for Animals*
* We do not sanction any groups' ethics or actions and offer the Network Partners Group as a networking resource tool.

Life is as dear to the mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wantshappiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not to die, sodo other creatures. ~ His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Wild horse activists buzz Denver with anti-Salazar banner

By Bruce Finley The Denver Post

Posted: 11/20/2009 05:58:25 PM MST

Updated: 11/20/2009 06:06:14 PM MST

Wild horse advocates tried to challenge a federal relocation proposal by flying a banner over Denver this afternoon that called Interior Secretary Ken Salazar "the slaughter czar."

New Mexico-based Wild Horse Observers Association co-founder Patience O'Dowd said her group opposes Salazar's proposal to re-locate thousands of the wild horses that roam the West.

They paid $2,000 to fly the banner over the federal center in Lakewood, where the Interior Department has offices, and over central Denver until sunset.

Salazar was not in Colorado today.

The proposal calls for keeping some 25,000 non-reproducing horses at seven preserves in the Midwest and East.

It would be more humane and feasible to manage growing wild herds by shooting birth-control darts at the horses from helicopters, O'Dowd said.

The growth of wild horse herds over 40 years has challenged federal land managers to find a way to balance wild horse, cattle industry and energy interests without slaughter while also minimizing costs to taxpayers. Federal officials over the past year spent $29 million caring for some 32,000 wild horses and burros rounded up into fenced holding areas around the West.

"We have to find a humane way to manage the horses on the range so that they avoid starvation and so that ecosystems are protected from overgrazing," Salazar spokesman Matt Lee-Ashley said. "Nobody is proposing slaughter."

Opponents to the management plan, he said, "have let their imaginations run wild."

Singer Sheryl Crow has added her voice to calls for better management of America's wild horses and burros.

Crow has added her name to a letter to United States politicians demanding a moratorium on wild horse musters, and raising concerns over a proposed northern Nevada muster in the so-called Calico Complex that would see 2500 horses taken from the wild.

More than 100 organisations have signed the letter, including actors Ed Harris and Wendie Malick.

"With one voice we are insisting that our government stop managing these beautiful and important animals to extinction," Crow said.

"It's time for all of us to speak up for our Wild Horses and Burros so we do not lose these living legends and inspiring symbols of our freedom in America," she said.

The signatories want a moratorium until a long-term and humane policy to manage the animals is developed.

The groups have concerns over Bureau of Land Management proposals to move horses further east and the current practice of removing horses and burros entirely from public lands specifically designated for the animals by Congress in 1971.

"Adding more horses to those already held in confinement, when they are much safer on the range is short-sighted, inhumane and fiscally irresponsible."

The bureau is understood to be paying a private contractor $US610 per horse rounded up for an estimated total of nearly $US2 million for the Calico roundup alone.

Branding, vaccinating, sterilising and processing of horses to be placed in government holding facilities will cost several million more.

Wild horse advocate Julianne French accused the US Government of acting in defiance of the spirit and intent of the 1971 Free Roaming Wild Horses and Burros Act.

The act preserves wild horses and burros in over 300 areas of publicly owned rangeland in the west, forbidding their exploitation, harassment and removal.

Only 30 million acres remain of the 54 million acres designated primarily for wild horse use in 1971. More than 100 herds have been completely removed by the bureau and the groups fear some remaining herds are too small to ensure their long-term survival.

The groups have placed online the details of those who people wanting to express their views should contact.

I thought you might like to pass on my recent blog :TYPE INTO BROWSER:

http://www.blogger.com/publish-confirmation.g?blogID=13426497&postID=811039167064963369&timestamp=1258762975750&javascriptEnabled=true
to let people know that I'll be their pony express rider and help them help the horses.
I'll read the names and locations (ages, too, if they're under 21!) aloud as supporters of the moratorium.
Here's how:
1. Write a letter (feel free to use anything I've written to support your opinion). Speak your mind; no one can do that for you.
2. Include your first name, age, and where you live (city, state, country)
3.Mail your letters to Terri Farley, 565 California Avenue, Reno, Nevada 89509
4.I will stand up at the BLM meeting on Dec. 7, make a quick statement, then start reading the names, ages, and city/state/countries of those speaking for mustang freedom.
5. I will be allowed 3-5 minutes speaking time & my goal is to read your names until they cut me off.
Let's give the horses something to be thankful for!

HOUSTON, (Horseback) – The year 2010 will mark an enormous turning point in the history of America’s wild horses and burros as their caretaker, the federal Bureau of Land Management, launches an aggressive campaign to remove them from their wilderness homes.

The agency claims the horses are breeding at an alarming degree, destroying the land, and starving.

Animal welfare organizations such as the Chicago based Equine Welfare Alliance and the Cloud Foundation of Colorado Springs disagree and have launched a global petition drive to force a president who was elected on a platform of change to halt business as usual at the BLM and halt the capture of America's wild horses.

If the roundups proceed, critics charge the herds may well be genetically bankrupt – unable to propagate in the wild. Horseback Magazine put the BLM on the record. The following is the response we got from national spokesman Tom Gory.

HORSEBACK MAGAZINE: How many wild horses will be left on BLM land after the 2010 gathers?

GORY: The on-the-range population will be approximately 34,000 after the 2010gather season. This figure reflects the fact that herd populations grow atan average rate of 20 percent.

HORSEBACK: How many of the remaining mares in the wild will have been treated with fertility drugs?

GORY: We are planning on treating approximately 3,000 mares for FY 2010.

HORSEBACK: Will any of the horse management areas set upin 1971 that currently serve as habitat to wild horse and burros be left bare of equines after the roundups?

GORY: No HMAs that are currently maintaining horses will be bare of equines after the FY 2010 gather season.

HORSEBACK: What specifically is the relationship between the BLM and the Humane Society of the United States in terms of the use and supply of thefertility drug PZP on wild horses?

Gory: The BLM has an agreement with HSUS signed on 10/23/06. The agreement states that the BLM agrees to:

1. Continue a cooperative relationship with the HSUS concerning thefurther development of contraceptive vaccines for use in controlling wildhorse populations.

2. Develop policies that promote and facilitate the use of contraception within the constraints of existing laws and regulations. The goals of these policies are to:

a. reduce the growth rate of wild horse populations;

b. reduce the frequency of removal actions on wild horse herds;

c. reduce the number of animals that must be removed from the public rangelands; and

d. reduce the overall costs of wild horse management.

3. Monitor the effects and effectiveness of the use of fertility control vaccine on wild horse populations, and keep the HSUS informed ofthe results of that monitoring.

HSUS agrees to:

1. Ensure a reliable supply of contraceptive vaccine, including adjuvants and other components.

2. Improve preparation and delivery methods for safe and effective application of the vaccine.

3. Work towards increasing the effectiveness of the drug while ensuring its safety to humans and animals.

BLM and HSUS agree to:

1. Educate and inform the public on the role that contraception can play in the management and control of wild horse populations on publiclands.

2. Work toward meeting the EPA and/or the FDA requirements fornon-investigational use of the contraceptive vaccine.

3. Meet annually at a minimum to review progress of provisions agreed to in this Memorandum Of Understanding. Consistent with that agreement, the BLM has a cooperative research project involving two HMAs that is funded by an Annanberg Foundation grant to look at:

1. What are the effects of the 22-month PZP vaccine on the population's foaling and growth rates?

2. What are the effects of a PZP booster administered remotely in year 3 on the fertility of individual treated mares and on the population's foaling and growth rates?

3. What are the effects of PZP treatments on the health and social dynamics of treated bands?

Take action now!!!

Hi, folks. Now that we’ve had time to breathe, it’s time to keep the momentum moving forward! Send the letter to your legislators and ask that they support this in Congress. Let us know what responses you receive!

We also want to continue adding supporters to the unified call. I have updated the EWA site to include the below. The Cloud Foundation also has similar information. Feel free to post this on your sites, blogs and cross post to your email groups.

Add your voice to the unified call for a moratorium on wild horse and burro round-ups!

I also have a section for BUZZ from our supporters. If any of you have any brief comments you want to add, please send ‘em on to me. I’ll only display your first name and first letter of your last name unless you specify otherwise.

Here is a link to the list that was provided in the press release. I have added a section starting on page 6 for supporters joining after the release was issued. The two list will be merged together in about 30 days. We have to preserve the original list for the integrity of the press releases.

This was issued by the Cloud Foundation and is now being released to EWA press contacts. You can start spreading the word on this one! As an FYI, Actor Mariana Tosca just endorsed the moratorium and will be included in the next press release.

CHICAGO, (EWA) – Sheryl Crow speaks out for the wild horses and burros on America’s public lands in the west. The multi-GRAMMY®-winning singer-songwriter and mustang owner joins The Cloud Foundation, over 130 organizations, scientists, authors and celebrity supporters calling on President Obama, Members of Congress and the Department of Interior to place an immediate moratorium on all wild horse and burro roundups until a long-term and humane policy to manage the animals is developed.

“With one voice we are insisting that our government stop managing these beautiful and important animals to extinction” —Sheryl Crow

The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) removal plan for Nevada’s Calico Complex wild mustangs is fueling outrage across the country and internationally. In a unified sign-on letter, wild horse supportersoutline their opposition to the Obama Administration's October 7, 2009 announcementregarding the management of wild horses and burros. Groups oppose moving 26,000 wild horses to purchased lands in the east and the current government practice of removing entire wild horse and burros herds from public lands specifically designated for the animals by Congress in 1971.

“We ask that President Obama or Secretary Salazar cease all BLM roundups as of this date to prevent further suffering. We request that the government and BLM begin to work in good faith with wild horse advocates for a sustainable solution. The Calico Roundup, scheduled to begin in December and continue through the dead of winter, is inhumane and must be stopped!” —Sheryl Crow

Upon hearing about the BLM’s plans for the large-scale removal of 2,500 horses in northwest Nevada near the Black Rock Desert, more than seven thousand citizens submitted public comments to the BLM opposing the Calico Mountain Complex Round Up, scheduled to begin on December 1, 2009. Public comment has been extended through November 22, 2009 according to the BLM.

Currently more than 33,000 wild horses are stockpiled in government holding facilities at a cost to taxpayers of $100,000 a day. The scheduled removal of 2,500 from Nevada will bring that total to more than 35,000.

“We already have enough wild horses in pens. Adding more horses to those already held in confinement, when they are much safer on the range is shortsighted, inhumane and fiscally irresponsible.” —Ginger Kathrens, Emmy Award Filmmaker & Volunteer Executive Director of the Cloud Foundation.

The BLM will pay the private contractor $610 per horse rounded up for an estimated total of nearly $2 million for the Calico roundup alone according to BLM spokesperson, Tom Gorey. Branding, vaccinating, sterilizing and processing of horses to be placed in government holding will cost several million more. The BLM hired the same contractor for the controversial roundup of the famous stallion, Cloud, and his Pryor Mountain herd in September, 2009. Bands including two-month-old foals were chased down off the mountaintop by helicopter for 10-15 miles in more than 90 degree heat resulting in trauma and lameness.

The 1971 Act preserves wild horses and burros in over 300 areas of publicly owned rangeland in the west, forbidding their exploitation, harassment and removal. Regardless, only 30 million acres remain of the 54 million acres designated primarily for wild horse use in 1971. Over 100 herds have been completely removed by the BLM and most remaining herds are too small to insure their long-term survival. The BLM's current policy of eradicating these herds is a betrayal of the wishes of the American public.

Sheryl Crow, with wild mustang and burro supporters, calls the public to action urging all to write, e-mail, fax and phone Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, their congressional representatives and President Obama. The list of contact phones, e-mails, faxes and mailing addresses is online here.

“It's time for all of us to speak up for our Wild Horses and Burros so we do not lose these living legends and inspiring symbols of our freedom in America.” —Sheryl Crow

The government plans to aggressively sterilize wild horses and transplant thousands to new public preserves in the Midwest and East as a solution to the nearly 40-year-old problem of how to manage the exploding numbers of wild horses in the West, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday.

"We have a huge problem -- out-of-control populations of wild horses and burros on our public lands," Salazar told reporters. "The problem has been growing and simmering over time, and it's time for us to do something about it that protects the horses, the public lands and the taxpayers."

With no natural predators remaining in their habitat, the wild horses and burros that roam federal land in 10 Western states have been thriving, growing from 25,000 in 1971 to 69,000 today. They compete with other wildlife and with cattle for food and water, and they have been blamed for damaging their surroundings.

The Bureau of Land Management says the range can support about 26,600 wild horses and burros. But today the free-roaming herds total about 37,000. There are another 32,000 in holding facilities.

Salazar is proposing that the federal government spend about $96 million to buy land in the Midwest and East to create two preserves that could each support 3,600 horses. It is unclear exactly where the preserves would be located. The annual operating and maintenance costs would be about $1.7 million, according to the bureau.

The secretary said he envisions that the preserves would be open to the public and that tourists would visit to see the horses, but he offered few details about how that would work.

The government intends to partner with nonprofit organizations and other private groups to create five more preserves, so that 25,000 animals would be living on preserves by 2014. All the animals would be sterilized or segregated by sex to prevent procreation.

At the same time, the government would seek to sterilize or control the reproduction of enough animals on the range so that the birthrate is 3,500 foals a year. That would equal the adoption rate of the wild horses and burros, resulting in no net growth of the wild herd. Under the proposal, the costs for the wild horse and burro program would start decreasing by 2019.

Long an American icon and inspiration for song and story, the wild horse has special protection under a 1971 law. The federal statute calls wild horses "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West" that should be "protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death." But the same law also requires the government to achieve "appropriate management levels" of roaming horses so that they do not overwhelm federal lands -- and that is the part that has been vexing government officials.

Since the 1980s, the federal government has hired cowboys to round up some excess horses and place them in holding facilities, where they await adoption by the public. But the adoption rate has slowed along with the economy. In fiscal 2008, the government placed 3,706 horses into private adoption, compared with 5,701 in fiscal 2005.

The number of horses and burros in holding facilities is now about 32,000 -- nearly the same number roaming wild on the range. Meanwhile, the cost to taxpayers for feed and care of the animals in holding facilities keeps climbing. The budget for the wild horse and burro program rose from $39.2 million in fiscal 2007 to more than $50 million last year.

A year ago, officials at the Bureau of Land Management suggested they might turn to euthanasia -- causing an immediate outcry from members of Congress, horse lovers and animal advocates. Madeleine Pickens, the wife of billionaire T. Boone Pickens and a racehorse breeder, jumped into the conflict and announced her intention to buy a ranch and adopt 30,000 horses. She created a nonprofit foundation and a Web site, at http://www.madeleinesmustangs.org, and signed a letter of intent to buy land in northeast Nevada. But her negotiations with the government have sputtered over her request for annual federal stipends to care for the horses and the use of some federal lands for grazing.

Pickens said Wednesday that she was unsure what Salazar's announcement means for her project. "It's pretty vague," she said, referring to the government's plan. "The good news is they're going to do something, which is more than nothing."

Salazar's proposal must be approved by Congress, and a key lawmaker voiced his support Wednesday.

"I applaud Secretary Salazar's commitment to reversing the historic trend of treating wild horses like a nuisance and subjecting them to long-term storage and slaughter," said House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall II (D-W.Va), who had criticized Interior's handling of the issue in the past. "We have been fighting this battle for a long time now and will continue to do so until the BLM fulfills its duty under the law to protect America's free-roaming wild horses and burros."

Some animal advocates, including Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society, praised the plan, but others decried it. American Horse Defense Fund President Shelley Sawhook said it would be costly and only amounted to "a stop-gap measure."

"I'm skeptical of the entire thing," Sawhook said. She blamed the current predicament on government officials having taken 19 million acres of federal habitat away from the horses and burros. "That needs to be returned to the horses," she said. "If that 19 million acres were still there, there would be no need for holding pens. There would be no need for relocation."

http://www.aowha.org/war/srm0901.html
Friends,the Society For Range management Conference is going on right now in NV.It is a 3 day deal.Click in the above link to read more about what it is and entails.Then scroll down and click on "Tuesday's Notes".Betty( last name?) and Laura Leigh are there representing our wildhorses/burros.Betty is taking the notes and if u keep reading this link each day -you can see the updated notes as they come in.> You are going to find the questions and answers VERY INTERESTING!
. The panel is > pretty loaded with big game and welfare ranching interests and their
friends, > There is also a reporter there from Vanity Fair.It's going to get VERY INTERESTING.So keep reading and crosspost.Thanks!

Dear Friends,there has seemed to be alot of confusion today on exactly who to be contacting for the moratorium,and the hearing for the Roam Act.Chris Heyde of the Animal Welfare Institute has been gracious enough to straighten out the miscommunicating going around the horse world .See below

Chairman Grijalva sent a letter in August where he addressed many BLM problems and called for a moratorium. That isn’t new. However, that is all the Committee/Subcommittee can do short of a new bill.

Folks should absolutely call for a moratorium, but it should be to the BLM. They should also be writing the Senate Committee calling for a hearing on the ROAM Act. They can bring up the moratorium as well since the issue could be addressed in the Senate hearings.

Calls/emails to the House aren’t going to help anything. It is past them now. Should the Senate have a hearing and move ROAM and that includes moratorium language it would go back to the House for a new vote. Then we flood the House (entire House) with calls of support.

WASHINGTON, (ALC) - A Congressional staff member has confirmed to Animal Law Coalition that the House Natural Resources Committee is calling on BLM to stop all gathers or removals of wild horses and burros until Congress takes action on the controversial issues surrounding the wild horses and burros.

A Congressional staff member told Animal Law Coalition, " It is my understanding that BLM has 11 more roundups planned for 2009 and is expecting to remove more than 6,000 horses. This is unacceptable especially in light of the fact that these roundups are not based on science."

There should be a public hearing and investigation held by Congress regarding BLM's management of America's wild horses and burros particularly before yet another plan essentially approved only by BLM and DOI is put in place. There should be a moratorium on all gathers until Congress has completed public hearings and an investigation and reached a decision about the appropriate management of these animals consistent with the laws that protect them. These are after all America's wild horses and burros.

The Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act (WFRHBA) directs BLM to manage America's wild horses and burros to "maintain free roaming behavior". All management activities by law are to be at the "minimal feasible level". Under WFRHBA America's wild horses and burros are entitled to humane treatment and to remain free from "capture, ...harassment, or death".

But, instead, the BLM largely manages these animals by running them down with helicopters and gathering or removing them from public lands to holding facilities, separating families, injuring and even killing horses in the process. A terrifying ordeal that leaves wild horses and burros in holding pens where few are adopted, many are sold for slaughter and still more languish, their spirits and bodies broken. The operation of holding facilities will consume about 70% of the total 2009 budget for these animals.

Surely, that is contrary, to say the least, to the directive of the WFRHBA. Indeed, U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer found in her August 5, 2009 opinion: "It would be anomalous to infer that by authorizing the custodian of the wild-free roaming horses and burros to manage them, Congress intended to permit the animals' custodian to subvert the primary policy of the statute by capturing and removing from the wild the very animals that congress sought to protect from being removed from the wild." Colorado Wild Horse and Burro Coalition, Inc. v. Salazar, No. 06-1609 (D.D.C 2009)

Mr. Salazar insists that "arid western lands and watersheds" can't support the few wild horses that remain "without significant damage to the environment" and "degrading public lands". These are reasons typically stated by BLM in its environmental assessments and environmental impact statements to support removals of wild horses and burros from herd areas. And, just as typically, there are no specifics to support these claims. For more examples....

Indeed, Mr. Salazar and BLM do not mention the thousands of cattle grazing and drinking and fouling water on these lands, BLM's land sales, development, increasing recreational use, and mining as well diversion of water from herd areas. Wildlife ecologists say if public lands are "degraded", something that is disputed, these factors are far more to blame. In fact, citizens living in the areas where there are wild horses and burros, including small ranchers, contradict BLM's assessments the range is "degraded" or lacks sufficient water for these few remaining animals.

Note that in 1990 BLM claimed the range was the best it had been in the last century. Yet, since then, there has been an increase in the numbers of wild horses and burros removed from the range. There is also no question BLM has routinely renewed grazing permits, finding the range satisfactory for grazing cattle and at the same time, issue environmental assessments that claim the very same range cannot support the few wild horses and burros that remain. BLM has also relied on outdated or what can only be called completely false assessments in its apparent zeal to justify removal of wild horses and burros.

Shouldn't Congress at least have a hearing or investigate whether BLM's claims are true? Shouldn't Congress consider whether BLM should even continue as the manager of the wild horses and burros program? An agency that has turned the WFRHBA on its head and instead of managing to maintain free roaming behavior, does so by removing and penning wild horses and burros.

In effect, WFRHBA authorizes only limited interference with wild horses and burros in herd areas where they were living in 1971. Nothing about removing wild horses and burros from herd areas where they lived in 1971 to allow multiple use such as cattle grazing, recreation for off road vehicles, mining or development. Also, protecting the ecological balance of all wildlife has never meant rounding up and removing whole species. Especially when there is a law that explicitly protects their right to exist in historic herd areas.

Even designated ranges managed under a multiple use concept are to be " devoted principally" to wild horses and burros. The wild horses and burros on these lands are not to be eliminated for cattle or mining or recreation or even secondary to these other uses.

Despite the limited authority to interfere with wild horses and burros under WFRHBA, the BLM has decided, however, the multiple public use concept applies to all herd areas as well as ranges. BLM even issued a regulation that effectively rewrites WFRHBA to say the " objectives of these regulations are management of wild horses and burros as an integral part of the natural system of the public lands under the principle of multiple use". 43 CFR § 4700.0-2 Yet, the WFRHBA says only that wild horses and burros " are to be considered in the area where presently found, as an integral part of the natural system of the public lands". 16 U.S.C. §1331.

The BLM has also authorized itself to divide herd areas into " herd management areas", something not authorized by WFRHBA. 43 CFR 4710.3-1. In this way, with no statutory authority at all, BLM has limited wild horses and burros' access to thousands of acres that were historically their herd areas. This is done without thought about the horses' seasonal migration patterns or available resources. The BLM then removes wild horses and burros from the artificially created " herd management areas" on the basis there is insufficient forage, water or habitat! BLM also targets them for removal if they cross the artificial boundaries into their original herd areas.

While BLM has authorized itself to create divide herd areas into Herd Management Areas, its own regulations provide that " management of wild horses and burros shall be undertaken with the objective of limiting the animals' distribution to herd areas, 43 C.F.R. § 4710.4." Herd area" is defined by regulation as " the geographic area identified as having been used by a herd as its habitat in 1971," 43 C.F.R. §4710.4.

Another example of BLM's erosion of the WFRHBA protections is the rewording of the WFRHBA mandate "[ a]ll management activities shall be at the minimal feasible level". BLM's regulation says "[m]anagement shall be at the minimum level necessary to attain the objectives identified in approved land use plans and herd management area plans." 43 CFR 4710.4, 16 U.S.C. §1333. Two very different laws. So if a land use plan authorizes a land giveaway or increased recreation or mining, " management...at a minimum level" can mean round up and removal, according to the BLM.

The Federal Land Policy Management Act requires management of public lands under concepts of multiple use and sustained yield. 43 U.S.C. §§ 1701, et seq. But the multiple use concept does not trump the WFRHBA protections for wild horses. In fact, the statute makes clear that the protections under WFRHBA take precedence. FLPMA, 43 U.S.C. § 1732 (a) Yet, despite this, BLM has issued a regulation that provides "[w]ild horses and burros shall be considered comparably with other resource values in the formulation of land use plans." 43 C.F.R. §4700.0-6(b).

The BLM's land use plans make clear that contrary to WFRHBA, it does not decide to remove wild horses and burros only to maintain a " thriving natural ecological balance to the range, and protect the range from the deterioration associated with overpopulation". Nor are the protected wild horse ranges " devoted principally" to the use of wild horses and burros. Instead, the BLM clearly embraces the multiple use concept for all lands designated for wild horses and burros. Indeed, the plan seems to be to eliminate or zero out the wild horses and burros in favor of increased development and recreational use, mining, and cattle.

It should be noted that BLM has also virtually ignored the directive in the WFRHBA to " maintain a current inventory of wild free-roaming horses and burros on given areas of the public lands". 16 U.S.C. §1333(b). According to WFRHBA, the inventory is critical in determining appropriate management levels or AML and whether there is indeed an overpopulation or excess horses and burros. Yet, BLM has gathered and removed thousands of horses without the important information necessary to determine if the removal is legal. It's time to take a look, an independent census and standardize AML determinations.

It is important for Congress to open up for public review the work of an agency that has operated largely in secret, offering the public generally pre-determined courses of action, making a joke out of the public comment process. It is also time BLM or whatever agency that is put in charge of the wild horses and burros took seriously the WFRHBA mandate requiring consultation not with special interests but also a range of independent experts recommended by the National Academy of Sciences, the states and those with "scientific expertise and special knowledge of wild horse and burro protection...[and] wildlife management". 16 U.S.C. §1333(b).

Congress should hold public hearings and investigate Secretary Salazar's plan in particular. There are innumerable experts outside of the BLM who should have an opportunity to weigh in on how BLM continues to manage America's wild horses and burros.

Secretary Salazar delivered the following 3 part proposal to Sen. Reid: 1. BLM will work with non-profits and the "thousands" of wild horse enthusiasts to create sanctuaries and preserves in the Midwest or east. In fact, BLM appears to have already decided on sever preserves. It is not known who is involved in these transactions or how BLM decided on these preserves. Surely, the public is entitled to know how this happened. Mr. Salazar says tourism would be encouraged and could provide a source of revenue. But the mandate of the WFRHBA is to avoid such zoo-like settings for these American icons. The idea, the law, in fact, is that these animals are to remain free to roam on the public lands where they were living in 1971 when the Act went into effect.

2. Mr. Salazar will designate more ranges for wild horses. He cited the Pryor Mountain herd, recently rounded up and decimated, as an example of a range under BLM protection.

3. This is one of the most troubling aspects of Mr. Salazar and Mr. Abbey's plan. They say BLM will work to restore the "sustainability" of herds and public lands. BLM will continue to round up and remove horses but step up "fertility control", monitor sex ratios, and introduce non-reproducing herds. More like BLM will work toward the extinction of herds. The obvious concern is how a herd that is non-reproducing or sterilized can remain self-sustaining, genetically viable, as mandated by law. There are serious questions here about BLM's determination of sex ratios. These proposals will have a very negative effect on herds and herd behavior. This plan euphemistically referred to as "restoring sustainability" during the press conference, is, in fact, the opposite, a plan to exterminate the wild horses and burros and in doing so, create great chaos and
suffering in the herds. In effect, this plan raises real concerns about compliance with WFRHBA's mandate that BLM should manage these animals to maintain "free-roaming behavior" and a "thriving natural ecological balance" in herd areas.

There are also growing concerns about the effectiveness and use of the contraceptive, PZP, particularly in view of its effect on herd behavior and dangerous side effects such as out of season foals.

These plans likely stem from BLM's secret discussions that began in July, 2008 about ways to eliminate wild horses through unlimited slaughter, killing, manipulation of sex ratios, sterilization of mares, creation of gelding herds and the like. It is telling that here there is no promise in this plan to stop the slaughter of these wild animals or killing of healthy animals. There is no promise to stop the round ups, the decimation of herds, the brutal treatment of America's wild horses and burros in holding facilities.

During its discussions in the past year BLM considered ways to keep the public away from round ups and the killing of healthy horses and burros and planned to brand protests as "eco-terrorism". This was all to be done in secret. If Congress does not hold a hearing, investigate this plan and this agency, BLM will have succeeded.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

The wild horses and burros can be saved. There has to be a better way to manage these animals other than by hiring criminals to run them down with helicopters and penning some for life and sending others to slaughter. The WFRHBA requires them to be protected in their herd areas where they were living in 1971. And that is what the BLM should do.

FRIENDS,I wonder how many starving animals and children that $150,000 could have fed rather than the government having to leave only 124 horses of the 181 horses left in all of MT?Legislators really need to see these facts firsthand to see the absurdity to it all.All because they are on an energy search and exploration conquests. Also I added the link for all the gathers still to come.There won't be any wildhorses even left in NV if these round-ups are allowed to continue.Please take a few minutes and call /write them today!We continue to be their only voice.

It was at a cost of over $150,000 that our government removed 57 horses this September in the Pryors, leaving Cloud and only 124 other horses roaming free in all of Montana.

12,068 horses scheduled for removal in this fiscal year- this is a record number. The BLM Wild Horse and Burro’s program budget was doubled this year but nearly all the additional funds are being allocated to roundups. 2010 BLM Gather Schedule .

NOTE: When I called the House Committee of Natural Resources they informed me that The office of Subcommittee on National Parks,Forests,and Lands was handling this matter.They transferred me to that office..Below are their names.If you go to compassionindex.org you can get their individual webmail links.Ask everyone for an IMMEDIATE MORATORIUM ON ANY FURTHER ROUND-UPS until

The roundups must stop in order to allow time for independent analysis on the true numbers of horses remaining and investigations into the true reasons for removing 12,000 wild horses and burros this fiscal year.

http://www.horsebackmagazine.com/index.html
*Reports Reveal More Deaths and Sloppy Record Keeping by BLM as Groups Call for Investigation *
*By Steven Long*
(Horseback) - In the sometimes bewildering world of the federal Bureau of Land management, things get confusing – even confounded annoying. *
*Such was the case when Horseback Magazine began to investigate the deaths of 11 horses we found on a comprehensive report released by the Washington office on fatalities during the agency’s wild horse “gathers” since the beginning of last year.*

*The report stated the horses died in July, 2009, at a place called Conant Creek, Wyoming when 349 animals were captured by the agency. In fact, officials in charge of the area say that yes, they did have a gather but statistics for what BLM terms the North Lander Complex, which includes Conant Creek, are vastly different from what Washington released.. *
*According to North Lander records released Wednesday, 17 horses died, not the 11 Washington reported. Of the 17 dead equines, seven were foals. Besides the dead at Conant Creek, Washington reported that two horses died at Muskrat Basin, and one died at Rock Creek Mountain, while none died at Dishpan Butte. The North Lander report didn’t reveal locations. However, the Washington report only totals 14 horses when those locations are included.*
*As disturbing as the deaths are, an equally distressing statistic released in the North Lander records was revealed.*
*Herds captured from July 6, to July 21, at Conant Creek, Dishpan Butte, Rock Creek Mountain, and Muskrat Basis were all but wiped out. According to the records, the pre-capture herd size was 1,175 horses. After BLM wranglers did their work, only 365 horses were left to roam the vast area. The remainder was trucked to BLM holding facilities.*
*Critics have charged that the BLM captures of wild horses are so all consuming they are leaving the herds genetically bankrupt. Moreover, the agency administers anti-fertility drugs to many of the remaining horses after a capture leavening mares unable to breed for years after, if ever.*
*And rumors are persistent the BLM is making a concentrated attempt to wipe out wild horses to provide grazing land for western ranchers, a claim the BLM denies.*

*To add to the confusion sowed by BLM, reports have now surfaced that 11 horses did die in a July gather in Idaho.*
*In a detailed letter to Horseback Magazine David Rosenkrance, field manager of the Challis, Idaho, field office spelled out how the horses ended their lives in a helicopter assisted roundup there. Yet the report released by Washington acknowledged only 1 death this year at Challis when 366 wild horses were captured there, a direct conflict with the 11 admitted to in Rosenkrance’ letter.*

Activist groups including the Animal Law Coalition, The Cloud Foundation,and the Equine Welfare Alliance have all called for an immediate moratorium on further roundups by the BLM pending Congressional hearings.*

*Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, a former Colorado rancher, has thrown his full support behind the roundups and proposed seven holding facilities for wild horses in the Midwest and East which would serve as tourist attractions spotlighting this remnant of the old west – the wild horse.*
*Increasingly, according to a report in the Wednesday USA Today, the public
is saying no.*
*Vicki **|** **A Voice for Our Horses <http://www.vickitobin.com/>*http://www.equinewelfarealliance.org/>**
Horses don't have horse problems, they have people problems!

Hi, all. Attached is a press release we just issued through EWA. This was a joint effort and we want to thank Ginger Kathrens, Laura Allen, Deanne Stillman and Shelley Sawhook for their contributions. This release was issued under John and Shelley’s name so we can highlight our founding member’s organizations along with EWA and to recognize Shelley for her tremendous work and efforts.

Please wait a few hours before you post on any public sites. I still have another group of media to send to and they don’t like seeing something on the web before they receive it. I will also have a link to the document on the EWA site and my site in about one hour.

CHICAGO, (EWA) – The Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA), an umbrella organization comprising over 60 member organizations, announced today it is joining the growing chorus calling for an immediate moratorium on the gathering of wild horses and burros by all government agencies. Already calling for a moratorium are The Cloud Foundation, The Animal Law Coalition and noted expert, wildlife ecologist, Craig Downer and Mustang author Deanne Stillman.

On October 7, Ken Salazar, head of the Department of Interior (DOI) and Bob Abbey, head of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), publicly admitted the deficiencies in the current management of the Wild Horse and Burro Program in announcing the development of a new plan. “The Salazar plan would simply throw the herds off of their historical Western lands set aside for them in the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act and put them into long term holding facilities which it renames “refuges” explains EWA’s Vicki Tobin.

In an August letter to Bob Abbey, Congressmen Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) outlined the deficiencies in the current program over the past several years. To date, none of the deficiencies have been corrected and until range studies can be completed, there is no scientific evidence justifying the removal of wild horses and burros from the land. Following a GAO report in 2008 that found that the BLM did not have adequate funding to support the estimated 37,000 horses they had in holding pens, Congress generously increased their budget.

Instead of using the funding for its intended purpose, the BLM has intensified round-ups and has zeroed out many herds while leaving the remaining herds genetically unviable as a result of reduced numbers and mares that were given birth control. The increased round-ups are coming at time when there are more wild horses in holding pens than on the open range at a cost of millions of dollars to tax payers. “The huge number of horses being gathered is effectively guaranteeing a new and worse budget crisis in the immediate future” says EWA’s John Holland.

As long suspected by many, the DOI/BLM is on a course to exterminate America’s wild horses and burros. Cameron Bryce, a BLM ecologist was quoted in a recent follow up to George Knapp’s KLAS-TV investigative report, Stampede to Oblivion as stating “Wild horses do not belong in western ecosystems," and that "The 1971 Horse and Burro Act was based on emotions, not science."

In a comparative analysis of free-roaming wild horses and burros in relation to habitat, wildlife and livestock populations, wild horses and burros populations pale in comparison. In most cases, the wild horses and burros are being removed in record numbers with no scientific evidence justifying the need for these removals. According to the BLM schedule, another 12,000 wild horses and burros are targeted for removal in 2010.

The cries of Americans to their elected officials, the White House and the DOI/BLM remain unanswered. Removing horses without scientific justification is in violation of the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act. The 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act is a law and Americans are demanding that instead of ignoring the law, the BLM enforce it. An immediate moratorium on round-ups must be issued until the range studies are completed and the discrepancies are resolved.

Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:37 pm (PDT)
I forwarded to all three media sources...PLEASE do the same...
From: Beth (:
Date: 10/28/2009 7:34:49 PM
To: newsmanager@foxnews.com; yourstories@kfmb.com; Letters@newsweek.com
Subject: How does the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) call themselves wild
horse specialists? PLEASE READ!
The Bureau of Land Management - Wild Horse Specialists?
October 28, 2009 R.T. Fitch
by Simone Netherlands
When BLM roundups go bad
What might they be basing this definition on, on the fact that they have
been chasing wild horses for a long time? Does doing something the wrong way
for a long time make one an automatic specialist?
Natural horsemanship people everywhere who´ve ever witnessed BLM staffers at
work with wild horses, know beyond a shadow of a doubt, how ridiculously
un-knowledgeable the BLM "horsemen" truly are. Even bystanders at BLM
adoptions, not fully trained in the principals of natural horse man ship
wonder why the men flail their flags so furiously and send the horses into
scattered frenzies. They constantly look like they are trying to break some
kind of time record, and they refuse to take 5 or 10 more minutes longer to
make the situation half way bearable for the horses. The BLM staffers know
frightfully little about horses, about horse behavior and about how to
communicate with them.
It is actually rather easy for a natural horsemanship trained person to
maneuver a wild horse, because they are not spoiled by human signals yet.
The horse can be motivated to move in any direction by the way the trainer
looks at the horse, the way he/she moves towards or away from that horse and
the way their shoulders are angled in relation to where the horses body is
positioned. Horses are masters of perception and they respond accordingly
and very predicatively. Without any prior training of the horse, a
completely wild horse can be gentled in a round pen in approximately one to
two hours, it fails only in 1 out of 500 horses. Through simple principals
of reward by release, the completely wild horse is easily persuaded to trust
the trainer upon which time fear miraculously dissipates.
Contrarily, the BLM guys, they treat the wild horses as if they were cows.
They mis- communicate with the frightened horses, by waiving their flags
around, unknowingly positioning their bodies in completely opposite ways of
where they want the horse to go. The horses of course end up going in the
direction that they understand the humans body language is telling them,
which is a direction unbeknownst to the BLM staffer. The BLM staffer is
therefore confused as to why that horse is going into the fence instead of
where he wants it to go, and feels like he has to waive his whipstick more
furiously in order to make the horses understand.
A true horse specialist, would know without a doubt when a horse is about to
loose its cool. The tell tale signs are easy to recognize. But because the
BLM staffers do not recognize these signs or do not want to, they push the
horses far passed the limits of what their minds can take and this is why
there are many situations of which the outcome is, horses trampling other
horses, jumping fences, climbing out of chutes, hurting themselves etc.
To be perfectly fair to the BLM, if you have not studied horse behavior, and
have not become a specialist on horse body language, it is a difficult thing
to do, and people just do not know this instinctively.
Knowing fully well that this will fall on incredibly deaf ears just the same
as the requests to cease and desist all wild horse gathers, I still feel
compelled to share my humble, natural horsemanship opinion with you, that
either the BLM should be required to hire natural horsemanship people only,
or every BLM staffer needs to spend 5 weeks on natural horsemanship ranch
mandatorily, before they ever get to flail a Wal-mart bag whipstick at a
wild horse. http://rtfitch.wordpress
com/2009/10/28/the-bureau-of-land-management-wild-horse-specialists/
ï»¿ ï»¿ ï»¿ ï»¿
Beth (:
ï»¿
www.newenglandequinerescues.comwebsite http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/newenglandequinerescues/message group
"Of all the creatures ever made, man is the most detestable ... He is the only
creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain." ~Mark Twain

Steve Long has produced yet another blistering story about BLM's rampage!

The Big Story

Is a TRO in BLM’s Future?

By Steven Long

Photo by Terry Fitch

HOUSTON, (Horseback) – Activists have been scratching their heads as the federal Bureau of Land Management sweeps America’s wild horses from the Western landscape. Why? Because the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act clearly set aside plenty of room for them almost 40 years ago and the agency appears to be in violation of federal law.

The first paragraph of the law is clear cut.

“It is the policy of Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death; and to accomplish this they are to be considered in the area where presently found, as an integral part of the natural system of the public lands.”

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) & Forest Service are moving as fast as they can - rounding up America's horses by the hundreds, emptying traditional rangelands. The BLM refuses to allow legally mandated independent humane observers to watch. If they had nothing to hide, the humane observers would be there.

Can you help keep up the pressure with a few phone calls this week? Talking points, contact info below.

We are asking Sen Schumer & Sen Gillibrand to co-sponsor the Restore Our American Mustangs (ROAM) Act, and for an immediate moratorium on these [idiotic] roundups.

Together we can win one for the horses, and our kids. Speaking of kids, can you invite your children and grandkids to write a letter?

It was the children who got the historic 1971 wild mustang act passed. Thousands of them. One Congressman got 16,000 letters from children IN JUST ONE DAY. Every elected official knows there's no future in voting against the children. A teaching moment for the kids - empathy, responsibility, teamwork, caring, sharing, loyalty and citizenship. Sweet!

Please take time to call and write your local media as well as national media— we have made an incredible impact but we cannot let up now. Tell them that this is an issue that matters to YOU, ask them to involve you or another local advocate in the story. The new Cloud program airs on Sunday, Oct. 25th and that will allow even more people to appreciate wild horses.

Phone calls to make:

Ask for the release of the older horses and reform of the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program, fax your comments as well:

White House Switchboard – 202-456-1414 (fax: 202-456-2461) Ask for Senior Advisors: Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod. Ask for Michelle Obama too, her office is receiving a tremendous number of calls and they need to continue.

Call your Senators – switchboard 202-224-3121 and ask that they support S1579, The Restore our American Mustang (ROAM) Act

Call the Senate Committee of Natural Resources – 202-224-4971 (fax 202-224-6163) Email here. ask that they push the ROAM Act through immediately– it must go up for a vote soon in the Senate

Demand reform for our wild horses, it is too late for thousands but it is not yet too late for Cloud’s herd and many others. The roundup crews are headed next to the Steens Mountains of Oregon.We have been told that there will be no observers or photographers allowed. This is illegal- these are the public’s wild horses.

Right now 12 herds are being zeroed out in Nevada, 650 horses off 1.4 million acres because the land is not suitable… but the horses have been living there for over a hundred years.

Startling Statistics Enlightening on BLM Management of Wild Horse Program

Compiled by Laura Leigh

Photo by Ginger Kathrens

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, WA, - In 1974 there were approximately 57,000 wild horses and burros actually counted on public lands.

Today - There are fewer than 36,000 wild horses and burros estimated on public lands.

In a December 1971 report to Congress the BLM estimated that there were about 9500 wild horses and 7500 burros on public lands.

In 1974 a ground count was done and found about 42,000 horses and 15,000 burros.

The next year, the BLM concedes there were probably considerably more than 9500 horses in 1971; probably closer to 28,000. (Allowing for the assumed 10% "overcount" still doesn't reconcile the difference between 42,000 and 28,000. Nonetheless the doctored numbers are the ones generally offered to the public and the actual count isn't acknowledged unless someone asks specific questions about the 1974 horse and burro census.)

*The 1974 census was limited to BLM and US Forest Service lands did not include several thousand horses and burros found within National Parks or US Fish & Wildlife Properties.

The present population figures of 37,000 circulated by BLM includes both horses and burros, approximately 20,000 head fewer than counted in the 1974 census.

Since 1971 wild horses and burros have been removed from 102 ranges (Herd Areas) representing a loss of approximately 13 million acres of land. (There were 303 original Herd Areas - now only 201 Herd Management Areas [HMAs] remain.

Wild horses and burros now reside on 34,549,570 acres of the 261,950,378 acres managed by BLM

Oct. 2008 GAO-BLM

In fiscal year 2007, the program was funded at $36.4 million under BLM’s Management of Lands and Resources appropriation. Forty-four BLM field units manage approximately 33,100 wild horses and burros on 199 Herd Management Areas (HMA) covering over 34 million acres in 10 western states— Arizona, California, Colorado , Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming.4 BLM’s Nevada State Office manages about half of the land and animals in the Wild Horse and Burro Program

BLM permits far more cattle and sheep to graze on BLM managed lands than horses.

Specifically, in fiscal year 2007, approximately 567,000 head of cattle or sheep grazed BLM public lands. However, livestock are managed on 160 million acres of BLM lands, compared to the 29 million BLM acres that supports horses and burros.

BLM is currently compiling a history of how BLM field offices made the determination to manage wild horses and burros on the current 34.3 million acres, compared to the 53.5 million acres where they were originally found in 1971. According to BLM officials, they expect the review to be completed by March 2009.

http://wildhorseconservation.blogspot.com/2009/10/blm-and-national-cattlemens-beef.html
BLM and National Cattlemen's Beef Association Partner to dispose of Wild Horses!!!
In what could be its most absurd and cynical move yet, the Bureau of Land
Management is partnering with the National Cattlemen´s Beef Association,
the American Sheep Industry and the Association of National Grasslands
(represented by the Public Lands Council), in a campaign that promotes the
purchase of wild horses and burros by public lands ranchers. View their
joint press release at Beef USA
The very people who lobby tirelessly to remove wild horses from our public
lands at taxpayers´ expense are now urged to purchase these same horses at
bargain basement prices. Ranchers did not want to share their public land
allotments with these horses in the first place; do we really think they
are now going to let them graze these same allotments out of the goodness
of their hearts? Who better than the National Cattlemen´s Beef Association
to funnel wild horses to slaughter? In fact, it is disturbing that this
announcement should come on the heels of the USDA's decision to allow horse
slaughter to continue despite Congress overwhelmingly passing an amendment
banning such practice for one fiscal year; the horse slaughter ban was
vehemently opposed by the National Cattlemen´s Beef Association.
Without independent oversight and incentives to ensure the ranchers will
provide long-term care for these horses, we can´t help but see something
sinister at play and need your help to fight another attempt by the BLM to
dispose of our wild horses by any means available. PLEASE TAKE ACTION NOW
to protest this latest maneuver by the BLM and the cattle lobby: voice your
concern and outrage to Gale Norton, Secretary of the Interior, Department
of the Interior,1849 C Street, N.W., Washington DC 20240 - fax:
202.208.5048.
We are in the process of investigating all the implications of BLM´s new
campaign. Be sure to check the News Briefs section of the AWHPC site for
further information as we uncover it.
On behalf of the horses, thank you for your support.
Vicki | A Voice for Our Horses

once you open the link, click on the titles of the actions to sign a petition that will automatically be emailed to your legislators....now is the time to RALLY CONGRESS - both of them!

Please forward & cross post!
Hi all,

Below - wise strategy from the "mother ship." John & Vicki are 100% for the horses, we are grateful for their hard work & telling it like it is.

Action: Please call Senator Gillibrand & Schumer to co-sponsor and help move the R.O.A.M Act to the Senate floor.

HSUS: Humane Society of the US came out this week in support of the BLM plan, with reservations. HSUS does great work in many areas. However HSUS has not chosen to get publicly involved (or return my phone calls) on the Cloud roundup. Full disclosure: HSUS partners with the BLM on the controversial contraceptive drug PZP.

This is about the horses. Focus on that, and we'll keep our compass to true North.

Please keep calling, and please send this common sense piece to our elected representatives.

Cheers, Susan

PS The R.O.A.M.. Act (Restore Our American Mustangs Act) already passed the House, all we need is the Senate.

---

From Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA)

In the past few days we have seen a massive plan from the BLM that is no doubt designed to “divide and conquer” the support for our Wild Horses and Burros and it appears to be working to an alarming degree. Salazar didn’t purposely name Madeleine Pickens in his press release to drop a name. HSUS (with some reservations) has already gone public in their press release to support Salazar’s plan.
The plan would move the herds off their legally protected lands and put them into non-reproducing "sanctuaries" in the mid-west to live out their lives. While more humane than their recent proposed alternatives of euthanasia and slaughter, it will still lead to the same long term outcome. It will strip the animals of their rightful lands in much the same way the Native Americans were cheated out of their lands by the reservation system.
The Salazar plan simply renames and expands the current long term holding facilities. The horses would be sterile and segregated, so the self-sufficient herd structures would be largely destroyed. Not only is Salazar’s plan more of the same but there are serious concerns with horses that have lived in the West moving to the drastic climate change and different grazing lands in the Midwest and East. Either could result in fatal conditions such as founder. Even the transport is bound to induce injuries.
It is the same plan to exterminate our wild horses and burros with a new name and support from Congress. If the “sanctuaries” are going to be tourist traps and the horses cannot reproduce, who is going to get the contracts to supply horses? The so called Mustang “sanctuaries” and “rescues” that breed? More corruption and more wasted tax dollars! We have already paid for the horses and then we are expected to pay again to view the horses?
There is absolutely no need to put this burden on the taxpayers just to quietly destroy a beautiful part of our heritage.
This is not about supporting any organization, it is about supporting the wild horses and burros and what must be done to ensure their survival.
We must stay united and focused in our efforts to pass ROAM. It is the only hope for our wild horses and burros to stay wild. John Holland & Vicki Tobin

note:I don;t share her enthusiasm of Salazar plan to shuffle wildhorses back east.Salazar is "ambitious" as she puts it alright -but for his own greedy purposes.

Response to Secretary Salazar’s Press Annoucement

I am delighted that the Secretary of the Interior has announced reforms for the Wild Horse and Burro Program. Much of what the Secretary said yesterday echoes what I have said over the past eighteen months. Those concerns about the existing BLM program led me to seek a wild horse sanctuary/visitor center that would be available to the American people.

It is gratifying to know that the effort I have made the past year and a half to offer this project for the sake of the wild horses and the American people has borne fruit in Washington. I respect Secretary Salazar’s forthright candor in calling attention to this serious problem which has been ignored by the BLM for many years under previous administration.

I will support Secretary Salazar’s efforts, and will gladly compete to offer the wild horse sanctuary that I have planned to the BLM as one of the facilities proposed by Secretary Salazar.

Salazar Seeks Congressional Support for Sustainable National Program to Manage Iconic Wild Horses

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today proposed a national solution to restore the health of America’s wild horse herds and the rangelands that support them by creating a cost-efficient, sustainable management program that includes the possible creation of wild horse preserves on the productive grasslands of the Midwest and East.

“The current path of the wild horse and burro program is not sustainable for the animals, the environment, or the taxpayer,” Salazar said in a letter outlining his proposals to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and eight other key members of Congress with jurisdiction over wild horse issues. Salazar said he is “proposing to develop new approaches that will require bold efforts from the Administration and from Congress to put this program on a more sustainable track, enhance the conservation for this iconic animal, and provide better value for the taxpayer.”

Bob Abbey, Director of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM), commended the Secretary for his initiative, saying, “The proposals we are unveiling today represent a forward-looking, responsive effort to deal with the myriad challenges facing our agency's wild horse and burro program.” Abbey added, “We owe wild horses and burros on Western rangelands high-quality habitat. We owe the unadopted wild horses and burros in holding good care and treatment. And we owe the American taxpayer a well-run, cost-effective wild horse program. Today's package of proposals will achieve those ends.”

The challenges to the BLM associated with maintaining robust wild horse populations in the West have been recognized by the Senate Appropriations Committee, which has warned that gathering and holding costs have risen beyond sustainable levels and directed the BLM to prepare a long-term plan for the program. The Government Accountability Office also found the program to be at a “critical crossroads,” affirmed the need to control off-the-range holding costs, and recommended that the BLM work with Congress to find a responsible way to manage the increasing number of unadopted horses. In response to Congressional direction, Salazar’s proposals aim to achieve a “truly national solution” to a traditionally Western issue.

In four decades under the BLM’s protection, wild horses that were fast disappearing from the American scene have returned to rapid growth. “As wild horses have no natural predators and herds grow quickly,” Salazar said in his letter, “more than 33,000 wild horses live in 10 western states. Unfortunately, arid western lands and watersheds cannot support a population this large without significant damage to the environment.”

The BLM works to achieve an ecological balance on the range by removing thousands of wild horses and burros from public rangelands each year and then offering them for adoption. Unadopted animals are cared for in short-term corrals and long-term pastures. With the sharp decline in wild horse adoptions in recent years because of the economic downturn, the Bureau now maintains nearly 32,000 wild horses and burros in holding, including more than 9,500 in expensive short-term corrals. In Fiscal Year 2008, the cost of holding and caring for these animals exceeded $27 million – or three-fourths of the FY 2008 enacted funding level of $36.2 million for the entire wild horse and burro program. In the most recent fiscal year (2009), which ended September 30, holding costs were approximately $29 million, or about 70 percent of the total 2009 enacted wild
horse and burro program budget of $40.6 million.

A key element of the Secretary’s plan, designed to address concerns raised by the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Government Accountability Office, would designate a new set of wild horse preserves across the nation. Citing limits on forage and water in the West because of persistent drought and wildfire, Salazar said the lands acquired by the BLM and/or its partners “would provide excellent opportunities to celebrate the historic significance of wild horses, showcase these animals to the American public, and serve as natural assets that support local tourism and economic activity.” The wild horse herds placed in these preserves would be non-reproducing.

In his letter, Salazar also proposed:

Managing the new preserves either directly by the BLM or through cooperative agreements between the BLM and private non-profit organizations or other partners to reduce the Bureau’s off-the-range holding costs. This coordinated effort would harness the energy of wild horse and burro supporters, whose enthusiasm would also be tapped to promote wild horse adoptions at a time when adoption demand has softened.

Showcasing certain herds on public lands in the West that warrant distinct recognition with Secretarial or possibly congressional designations. These would highlight the special qualities of America’s wild horses while generating eco-tourism for nearby rural communities.

Applying new strategies aimed at balancing wild horse and burro population growth rates with public adoption demand. This effort would involve slowing population growth rates of wild horses on Western public rangelands through the aggressive use of fertility control, the active management of sex ratios on the range, and perhaps even the introduction of non-reproducing herds in some of the BLM’s existing Herd Management Areas in 10 Western states. The new strategies would also include placing more animals into private care by making adoptions more flexible where appropriate.

Noting that his proposals are subject to Congressional approval and appropriations, Salazar said he and Director Abbey look forward to discussing them with members of Congress “as we work together to protect and manage America’s ‘Living Legends.’”

A copy of the letter is online at www.doi.gov and can be found here. For background information on the national wild horse and burro program, please visit the BLM’s Website at www.blm.gov.

Mon Oct 5, 2009 1:47 pm (PDT)
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Recap of Events- Keep Working for the Survival of Our Wild Herds
Follow all events and stay updated via our new blog site - click here to read
The month of September was full of tragedy and also a lot of hope. 57 horses, aged less than one month to over 21 years old were removed from their home in the Pryors. Rain, Image, Arrow, Ember, Sage and Summer were among the young horses to lose their freedom and families. I can report that all are doing well in their new homes- the real tragedy of this roundup was the removal of ten horses over the age of ten and the total number of horses removed- the Pryors herd is now only at 125. Montana's only remaining wild horse herd is now below the levels recommended for minimum genetic viability and a number of the horses on the mountain top, including Cloud, are still lame. Read the vet report and an article here. Read more on our blog, and from Horseback Magazine here.
Thanks to you and amazing efforts by Billings residents, the four family bands who were removed in their entirety from the Pryors are back together on a beautiful ranch in Montana, located at the base of their mountain home. Watching Conquistador reunite with his mare, Cavalitta, and Bo, Shane and Trigger do the same with their families was certainly a miracle. Listen to Ginger Kathrens describe these events and more here. Thank you to everyone who made this possible, through your donations to the Freedom Fund, you action and your support. Donations for the continued work of the Cloud Foundation and care of these horses is still needed, please donate here.
From the auction the Cloud Foundation took the horses' cause to Washington DC. Many advocates spoke at the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Advisory board meeting but this board is stacked against the horses and behaves much like the BLM. However, the next day we had a marvelous press conference at which Congressman Grijalva spoke and took questions. The group then met with over 45 Senate offices for "Mustangs on the Hill" to support the ROAM Act (S. 1579). Read more about these events here. Full video coverage of the Advisory Board Meeting and Press Conference should be up on the the www.nvHorsePower.org site this week.
But the roundup of Cloud's herd is really only the tip of the iceberg. BLM just announced plans to remove over 12,000 wild horses and burros from the wild this fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2009 - Sept. 30, 2010). Last year the BLM threatened to kill the 30,000+ wild horses in holding but now they are using nearly all the additional funding to round up a record number of our wild equids. 12 herds are being zeroed out right now in Nevada; 1000 horses are to be removed from Wyoming this month alone--- it goes on and on. This is mismanagement of our living national heritage with millions of taxpayer dollars and the real losers are the horses and burros. TAKE ACTION Please take a moment today to write and call both your US Senators and ask them to support the ROAM Act (S. 1579) which is currently in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
The new Cloud program, Cloud: Challenge of the Stallions, will air on October 25th on PBS stations nationwide. Let's keep up the momentum to stop or at the least, limit, the massive roundups already underway. 20-plus million acres have already been taken away from the wild herds and they should be returned. Plan a get-together to watch the new show and then write letters to your senators and take action to preserve and protect all our wild herds.
Happy Trails!
Conquistador is now back with his mare on a ranch in Montana
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Would love to know who the "official" was that walked out in the middle of this meeting.If that doesn't speak volumes-I don't know what does! :

ROAM Would Expand BLM Horse Board to Include Activists, Term Limits

By Steven Long

Photo Courtesy Bureau of Land Management

The Restore our American Mustang Act, (ROAM), if it passes, will bring radical change to the way the current Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board of the Bureau of Land Management does business.

In particular, the new legislation would give animal welfare advocates a seat at the table of a board that heretofore was dominated by ranchers, mineral, and hunting interests.

The proposed legislation changes the makeup of the board saying it “shall include three representatives of the livestock industry; three representatives of the environmental community; three representatives of the animal protection community; and three scientists with expertise in wildlife management, animal husbandry, or natural resource management.”

It also opens up appointment to the board stating ” Nomination of members of the board shall be conducted by public notice and comment…and shall be for a term of four years. No individual shall serve more then two consecutive terms.”

Some members have served on the current board for decades. Appointment to the board has largely ignored wild horse advocates.

The act has passed the House by a large margin. It is now in the senate and appears to enjoy strong support.

At a meeting of the current board held in Alexandria, VA, last week, members largely ignored advocates, some of whom had traveled hundreds of miles to express their concerns. One board member walked out.

A "gather" of wild horses in Montana's Pryor Mountain wilderness of a herd of Mustangs made famous on the PBS series"Nature," by documentary filmmaker Ginger Kathrens has provoked a tsunami of outrage at the bureau and its current wild horse board prompting thousands of calls and letters to Congress and the White House.

Louisiana's Sen. Mary Landrieu (D), has introduced legislation which would force the BLM to completely revise its wild horse and burro policy.

Wild horse round-up in Theodore Roosevelt Nat'l PK-they are hiring humters to shoot the elk and helicopters to round up the horses thru very rugged terrain.Not good! :

This is a letter that Mary Adkins(who designed our recent Cloud fliers to raise wildhorse awareness) just sent to George Knapp. Please pay close attention to the fact that Sue Cattoor is attempting to change her web site right now as we speak … currently it is messed up if you go there to view it. She has 2 4s and 5s currently

Hi there George,

My name is Mary and I recently became involved with the situation concerning the Pryor Mountain Mustangs. I will try to summarize my research as much as possible to make it simple and then please feel free to email me back with any questions. Also please note that since posting my findings on the blog at The Cloud Foundation, Sue Cattoor has tried to chance her web site, removing what she originally said. I do have proof and a copied screen of her changes.

The Pryor Mountain Mustang Center has done nothing to stop these round ups. The Cloud Foundation has done everything it possibly can. The board members of the Pryor Mountain Mustang Center are some of the same breeders there at the Pryor Mustang Breeders Association.

The Pryor Mountain Breeders Association state it right on their web site:

” To supply horses to restore a depleted Pryor herd, due to sickness or other catastrophic events, should that ever happen.”

I believe the breeders association is interested in doing this is stated on one of the breeders web sites:

"The BLM has been experimenting on the herd with methods to control herd size to eliminate future roundups of Pryor Mountain Horses. Using an immunocontraceptive known as PZP (Porcine Zona Pellucida) the BLM hopes to keep herd size at range capacity. The PZP and natural predation will eliminate the need for future roundups. Eliminating the Pryor Mustangs from roundups will in effect close access to the breed. The only way to acquire a Pryor Mountain Mustang is from a private breeder. At present there are only two breeders known to us, Carnahan Ranch and the Hartmans. Feel free to contact us for information on how you can own one of these wonderful horses."

If you read what Sue Cattoor ( wife if Dave Cattoor) who was hired for this roundup recently says on her web site, she claims that the BLM and the Pryor Mountain Mustang Center need to gather the horses and remove them because of inbreeding. She has attempted to remove the following:

“These wild horses are not genetically pure. Other horses have been introduced over the years.”

She also tries to quote Dr. Gus Cothran, a professor at Texas A&M University who specializes in horse genetics who had said the following,

“In the short term, the Pryor mustang herd won’t be hurt by a reduction from 188 animals to around 130, he said. The Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency in charge of the herd, had originally proposed removing about 70 animals. But the roundup ended Wednesday before the agency reached its target. In its new management plan, BLM is proposing a maximum herd of 120 animals, excluding the current year’s foals.” “The concern in keeping only 120 horses on the range, Cothran said, is the threat of a potential die-off that could reduce the herd even further, reducing the herd’s genetic diversity. In the Pryor horses’ favor if such an event should occur, though, is that the horses that have been adopted out could be used to recharge the herd in such a dire situation.”

Of course we know this not to be true and we know that over the past years The Pryor Mountain Mustang Breeders Association has introduced new horses when needed, NOT the ones that were removed.

And although he states that it could reduce the herd even further as being a possibility, he never mentions that inbreeding was an issue at the Pryors. In fact, The Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center had quoted him saying in a letter earlier this year that.

” The higher the effective population size , the less chance there will be for inbreeding to occur.” He does go on to state that “the population size is what determines the genetic diversity within the population and thus how genetically viable the population is”.

He states that the herd will not be hurt by a reduction of 188 to 130 ONLY because other horses can be added later if necessary. He admits that keeping the herd at 120 on the range could propose a risk of reducing the herd’s genetic diversity which is exactly what he later says can cause inbreeding. I see Sue Cattoor trying to twist what he has said. I hardly think it is okay to remove some horses just to add new ones later to SAVE THE HERD.

Of course I am not a breeder that wants to add “new bloodlines” into the herd. I am just an everyday person that believes that it is unfair to remove ” some horses” from a herd knowing that it will become genetically un-viable only to add new ones in later. And stating that the ones that were adopted out would be the horses that would be added in at a later time is what I would call a flat out lie. The BLM is helping a breeding operation to breed better horses. It is just that simple, and we are flipping the bill. It is outrageous to remove just ONE of these horses to add even ONE other at a late time. The cost to remove just ONE horse is outrageous.

If you need any of references that I have copied and save including the proof that Sue Cattoor has changed her site, just let me know. I appreciate your time and attention to this matter.

Mary

Rebuttal from wildhorse advocate on Catoor's comments On Ginger filming at the Pryor's:

R-
Mustangs Find New Homes on National Adoption Day
by: Pat Raia
September 28 2009, Article # 14984
More than 400 mustangs found adoptive homes this weekend during a series of National Wild Horse Adoption Day events sponsored by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and wild horse advocacy groups nationwide. Another 100 horses are expected to be placed during three similar events in October.
The horses were offered for adoption Sept. 26 at 35 events designed to educate prospective owners about the animals' performance potential and training requirements. The BLM hoped to place 1,000 animals during the events.
"I think we had an ambitious goal. But one of the most important aspects is that people who came to see these events will be a little more educated about the horses and about what's going on with them," said Julie Bryant, National Wild Horse Adoption Day Coordinating Director.
Mona Jerome operator of the Ever After Mustang Rescue in Biddeford, Maine, agreed.
"We adopted out all three of our horses," she said. "But lots of people came out to see the horses and watch the demonstrations. Even if they didn’t adopt that day, you never know when someone will come back."
Currently, 33,100 mustangs roam federal lands in 10 Western states. Another 31,750 reside in long- and short-term holding facilities under BLM management. Of those, 8,000 are available for private adoption.
For upcoming adoption event times and locations, visit NationalWildHorseAdoptionDay. org.

Wed Sep 30, 2009 1:49 pm (PDT)
----- Original Message -----
From: rjyager
To: SpringFarm CARES
Cc: RescueCoalition RochesterNYAnimal ; horse_rescue_and_sanctuary@yahoogroups.com ; giddy-up-for-animals@googlegroups.com ; coalitionforcgfanimals@yahoogroups.com ; newenglandequinerescues@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 4:39 PM
Subject: [NewEnglandEquineRescues] FW:[thecloudfoundation]: Mustangs on the Hill and Press Conferencehttp://thecloudfoundation.wordpress.com/2009/09/30/mustangs-on-the-hill-quick-synopsis/
Mustangs on the Hill and Press Conference
By thecloudfoundation
Mustangs on the Hill was a success I do believe! Thank you to everyone!– **read an ARTICLE by Erin Kelly, Washington Gannett Bureau here**
The day began with a press conference and to start, Carol Walker showed her slideshow of the tragic Sand Wash roundup and Ginger described Cloud’s release and his defiant stand against the helicopter that drove him and his family down from their mountaintop. Hope Ryden, our honorary board member, author and one of the writers of the Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971, spoke and met with Senators all day.
We were honored by a visit with Congressman Raul Grijalva and he addressed the full room of 60 wild horse supporters- he is a true champion for our wild horses and burros. Congressman Grijalva stressed that the ROAM act is bipartisan and will save all of us taxpayers money now currently used for mismanagement by BLM.
Congressman Raul Grijalva at Press Conference
“This is not only a humane issue, this is an issue about preserving a legacy that we have in the west, that we have lost. A legacy that I think speaks to the spirit of the west, to its independence, to its adaptability and above all to its evolution. And its not the old west anymore, it’s a new west. And a new west with a different ethic. A new west where we preserve the resources that are important to us. And with that I join with Chairman Rahall in this legislation and we’re very proud of it. It could have been stronger, there is some perfection that I would have wanted, but this is the process that we have and this is the product that we have. And as we move forward I would hope that as we wait for the senate we’re going to continue to urge BLM, that we hold in abeyance any more gathering until the full impact of the legislation is felt.” [excerpt]
Thank you t0 Congressman Grijalva for his support of wild horses and burros. And for Congressman Rahall and Senator Byrd and Senator Landrieu as well—all four are our wild horse champions! The press conference will be streamed online early next month I hope and we’ll let you know when it is available to watch. Congressman Grijalva was also kind enough to take questions for quite a while.
Our friend and supporter, Crow Elder and Historian Howard Boggess, spoke next– he grew up in the Pryors and was there well before the BLM. (Meet Howard in the Pryors on this youtube for a frank discussion). Chris Heyde of the Animal Welfare Institute, was integral to this event and spoke on meeting etiquette and distributed packets of information to give to Senators (see contents here: ROAM Act S. 1579 facts, Wild Horse and Burro Facts and Myths, Words to Keep Them Wild and Free, Managing for Extinction booklet, Cloud: Challenge of the Stallions show announcement– people are going to be watching our wild horses nationwide on October 25th and they will know about this recent roundup).
Then we fanned out in true advocate style and met with over 45 Senate offices (Senators and aides). We met with all the Committee on Energy and Natural members and everyone met with their Senators.
We had some amazing supporters who made this press conference and this hill day happen: Valerie, PJ and Lindsay: thank you! And a big thank you to everyone who came– age 8 to 80! And thanks to everyone for calling your senators. More recommendations and follow-up strategy to come. We are all a bit exhausted and I still have to let you know all about rescuing the older horses! We thank the Senators and their staff for their time and their interest in the wild horses and burros. I think that we have made a positive impact and have spoken for those who cannot.
forwarded by:
Robin J. Yager, Director
Network Partners for Animals*
* We do not sanction any groups' ethics or actions and offer the Network Partners Group as a networking resource tool. http://www.partnershelpinganimalscoalition-subscribe@yahoogroups.com (remove spacing)
Spring Farm CARES
3364 Route 12
Clinton, NY 13323
315-790-1404http://www.springfarmcares.org (no spaces)
Life is as dear to the mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wants
happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not to die, so
do other creatures. ~ His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Life is as dear to the mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wantshappiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not to die, sodo other creatures. ~ His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Hi Folks,

First let me thank everyone who attended or supported the events of this last week! I am convinced more than ever that our mustangs are indeed in mortal danger of being eradicated and it will take caring people to once again set things right.

Everyone wants to know about the adoptions (especially the Cloud herd) and Mustangs on the Hill, so we have shifted our schedule to make this program about those events and Lynn Henderson will be joining us in a few weeks.

We will be hearing from Dr. Ann Marini and Craig Downer, both of whom I met and had lunch with during the Mustangs on the Hill event. Ann was also with me and others at the Lorton adoption. We had long discussions with the BLM people there and we will discuss some of their assertions.

We have invited Ginger and hope she will be available. I can only imagine how tired she must be!

As usual, all calls are welcome but if you attended an adoption or were with us on the hill, please call in and share your experiences and impressions!

Next week we will have very special guests the Emmy award winning film makers Jaime and Jim Dutcher. The Dutchers spent six years in a tent camp winning the trust of a pack of wolves. Now wolves face the same mismanagement as the mustangs and we will explore how we might work together to save wild America.

Tue Sep 29, 2009 2:44 pm (PDT)
Hello newenglandequinerescues@yahoog!
Robin Yager has just read and signed the petition: American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign
You can view this petition at: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/tell-a-friend/5633053
Message from Robin Yager:
-----
Hi,
I signed the petition "American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign". I'm asking you to sign this petition to help us reach our goal of 50,000 signatures. I care deeply about this cause, and I hope you will support our efforts.
-----
ThePetitionSite.com provides tools and empowers individuals to make a difference and effect positive change through online activism. Get connected with the causes you care about, take action to make the world a better place, and start your own petition at http://www.ThePetitionSite.com!
ThePetitionSite.com is powered by Care2, the largest and most trusted information and action site for people who care to make a difference in their lives and the world. www.care2.com

As u will read in link below-Cloud is still lame and he "may" recover along with others.Let this put a "fire" under you TODAY-call your senators and ask them to support S 1579(known as the ROAM ACT) contact info below this article link.Thanks.

4 bands of Forest Service horses, 15 total including Floyd and Conquistador and his mare will be kept together at ranch of Laura Pivonka.

Ember and Image get to stay together, have a great home, also adopted into great homes were Arrow, Rain, Helena Montana, Stiles, Cassidy, the lame foal with his mom, who is looking better, and Ginger got Sax.

Conquistador had the record bid - $2500

Huge thanks to all the Freedom Fund donars and all the supporters who made this possible – this is a big win.

Just a quick note to all regarding the Lorton, VA BLM Adoption Day. Of the 53 horses and burros brought for adoption from Ewing, IL holding facility, 25 were adopted on site, 8 via internet. 20 will be returing to the holding facility.

It was an emotionally taxing day. I'll share more at another time.

We currently are waiting for news from The Cloud Foundation.

Please come to DC on Monday or Tuesday if you are able to make your views known. The wild horses are depending on us.

R-

Robin J. Yager, Director
Network Partners for Animals*
* We do not sanction any groups' ethics or actions and offer the Network Partners Group as a networking resource tool.

THIS IS HUGE.DO YOU SEE?THIS IS HOW WE GET TO THE BLM THRU THOSE WHO MAKE THE LAWS.TAKE A BOW EVERYONE WHO NEVER GAVE UP LETTING OUR LEGISLATORS KNOW;

WE WILL NOT TOLERATE IT ANYMORE!ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!WE STILL HAVE ALOT TO DO BUT THIS IS A GREAT START!READ ON....

The Senate also prohibited BLM from using funds to kill healthy unadopted wild horses and burros!

Update Sept. 25, 2009: The Senate has voted to pass H.R. 2996, an appropriations bill for 2010 for the Dept. of Interior including the Bureau of Land Management ("BLM").

BLM manages the nation's wild horses and burros. In the bill the Senate made clear to the BLM: Appropriations ... made [in this bill]shall not be available for the destruction of healthy, unadopted, wild horses and burros in the care of the Bureau of Land Management or its contractors or for the sale of wild horses and burros that results in their destruction for processing into commercial products.SEE LINK BELOW:

BELOW IS THE STORY OF OUR SHELDON WILDHORSE HERDS.THE SOMETIMES "FORGOTTEN WILDHORSES" BECAUSE THEY AREN'T UNDER BLM JURISDICTION. (INSTEAD UNDER THE U.S. FISH&WILDLIFE SERVICE) THIS IS LONG BUT REALLY TAKE THE TIME TO READ IT BECAUSE IF YOU LOVE WILDHORSES-THIS SHOULD BE A HUGE PART OF WHAT WE ARE FIGHTING FOR.IT IS IMPORTANT TO FORWARD THIS ON TO YOUR LEGISLATORS AND ALSO KEEP PRESSING THEM TO SUPPORT THE ROAM ACT.READ ON...........................................................................................................

OUR Sheldon horses…
How did this happen?Laura Leigh
Recently I became interested in the issues faced by Wild Horses in our country. I did some digging and what I discovered disturbed me so much that I took a trip to Nevada to see “with my own eyes.” The legislative nightmare surrounding these horses leaves you with a very real sense of how voiceless they have become. And how difficult it is, due to special interests, to get a logical response from those in authority.
As a horse-rescue person I am familiar with the adage “Maybe you can’t change the whole world, but you can change one whole world.” So I started to look at the possibility of adopting a wild horse.
As with all “breeds” there exists differences in bloodlines. This statement rings true for wild horses as well. Some have more “Spanish blood,” some a greater human manipulation in their histories. Each herd is then shaped by the natural environment and challenges of each. I fell in love with the Sheldon.
The horses at Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge exist in primarily three horse herd groups. Traits general of the horses in the herds of Sheldon are 15+ hand size, bays, sorrels, and white facial and leg markings. It is also widely claimed, by those that have known these horses in their own lives, that they have “good minds.” The groups appear to rarely mix so each group also has specific characteristics.
The horses called the Catnip/Round Mountain herd seem to be a bit flashy. Some sorrels with flaxen manes and tails, overo pinto sorrels, palominos, some buckskins. Fish Creek herd horses are larger bays and dark brown horses, some tobiano pintos. Those of the Badger herd appear Thoroughbred/quarter horse, sorrels, chestnuts, and bays.
So I began to see if I could find a horse from the Fish Creek herd that needed a home. Not an easy task I discovered. Sheldon is not part of the BLM, the agency most of us think of when we think “wild horse.” The horses that exist within the boundaries of the refuge do not have the consideration, however mismanaged, that the BLM offers. The wild horses at Sheldon are considered nothing more than an invasive species!
Sheldon wild horses are the product of an evolutionary genetic pool that consists of original wild horses, ranch horses, and cavalry remounts. In the early part of the 20th century ranchers turned their saddle horses loose on the range.
During World War I, ranchers such as Harry Wilson went into business with the federal government raising horses for the Army. Wilson provided Standardbred mares acquired from the Miller and Lux ranches and the government furnished Thoroughbred studs.
Over 1,700 head of Wilson horses ran from High Rock Canyon north to the Oregon border, including all of the present day Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge." (from "MUSTANG COUNTRY”)
Sheldon Wildlife Refuge was created in 1931, to provide habitat for wildlife and is under the jurisdiction of the US Fish & Wildlife Service. At that time horses were believed to be a feral invasive species, and management law plans are still based on that assumption.
From the 40’s- the 60’s our federal government leased land to cattle companies operating on and around Sheldon.
In 1971 something truly remarkable happened. In response to public pressure, both houses of Congress unanimously passed a bill. Congress' intent clearly was to protect and preserve America's free-roaming horse herds and proscribe methods by which the Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture were to manage those herds.
§ 1331. Congressional findings and declaration of policy
Congress finds and declares that wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West; that they contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people; and that these horses and burros are fast disappearing from the American scene. It is the policy of Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death; and to accomplish this they are to be considered in the area where presently found, as an integral part of the natural system of the public lands.
During the 70's and 80's, ranchers in the vicinity of Sheldon gathered horses, keeping the ones they wanted for saddle horses, and turning the remainder loose.
How it came about that the legal protections afforded most of America's free-roaming horses failed to include the herds at Sheldon is still unclear to me. Apparently Congress assumed that free-roaming horses and burros were found on BLM and US Forest Service lands, and somehow did not specifically include US Fish and Wildlife Service lands and the National Parks Service lands in the 1971 Act. I have tried to find any legal documents that actually describe the issues of standing and legal responsibilities over these horses and no clear explanations or documents have come to light.
Like all good “soccer moms” I turned to the World Wide Web. This is what I found.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) manages Sheldon NWR. The USFWS is different from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The mission of the NWR system is to administer lands and waters for the conservation and restoration of fish, wildlife, plant resources and their habitats for the benefit of the American people.
So how that translates into a reality that provides the horses at Sheldon no protection under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, that supposedly expressed the overwhelming wishes of the American people is unclear to me.
However the defined mission of the US Fish and Wildlife Service appears not to include practical and humane management of free-roaming horses and burros, and therefore the Service can argue that the intent of Congress doesn't apply to them.
As a result these horses cannot be placed through the BLM's Adopt-a-Horse program. A situation has been created where an agency without the appropriate infrastructure to manage, gather and place horses and burros through qualified adoptions, or even hold them until they can be suitably placed is tasked with this responsibility without adequate support or management criteria. Thus another bureaucracy has been created where our tax dollars are "well spent."
So I went back to the web to find a place to adopt a Sheldon horse. A quick search provided the following list:
Forever Free Mustangs
Sisters, OR
(541) 923-6124 (this phone number was out of service when we tried to call them in mid-June, 2006)mustangs@outlawnet.com
Carr’s Wild Horse and Burro Center
4844 Couts-Carr Rd
Cross Plains, Tennessee 37049
(615) 654-2180
(615) 654-4655 faxcarrsholding@aol.com
Gary Graham
W. Highway 6
Las Lunas, New Mexico 87031
(505) 565-8457
(505) 859-0690 cellgrahamhorses@msn.com
Brian Day
Refuge Manager
Sheldon NWR
(775)941-0200
Again all of this info is easily found on the internet. What I found turned my stomach.
First I discovered the process Sheldon uses to find suitable homes for horses and burros that the agency rounds up.
It all starts by making it impossible for rescues and individuals to directly adopt small numbers of the Sheldon horses directly from Sheldon. Sheldon allows only groups of horses to go to three supposedly screened agencies. The US Fish and Wildlife Service pays these "agents" $300 per horse to take them by the truckload! Is your head spinning yet?
To me it appears that these agreements are basically Federal contracts for services totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. Also I can’t find any process for selecting agents or contractors that involves any public bidding process. But that becomes a simple “sidenote” to what I found next.
I called Brian Day four times in the last week asking how to adopt a horse. My calls go direct to voicemail and I have yet to receive a call back. It’s summer time; maybe he’s on vacation?
Carr’s response seemed to be for real. I was given a date and a dialogue was actually begun about an adoption.
I located some information posted regarding Forever Free.
In conversations with potential adopters, Flora stated that FFM had placed 680 Sheldon horses last year, but when asked by Mr. Holland to confirm the number of horses and the timing, she became vague. When asked if FFM received $300 per horse, she responded "not for all of them". When asked for specifics, she became increasingly defensive. She stated that they had been careful to get them good homes and to make sure they did not go to slaughter. In conversations with others, Flora indicated they placed yet another "load" in January of this year and expected the next load in June. The timing of the gathers would indicate that FFM was able to place large numbers of horses within months or even weeks of their arrival.
More tellingly, Forever Free Mustangs has admitted that approximately 40 of the horses they originally adopted were found in a slaughter pen and had to be "bought back.”*
How can Forever Free place so many horses, so fast? In the rest of the world it just doesn’t work that way.
Then I looked into Gary Graham.
Apparently encouraged by the incredible efficiency of the Forever Free Mustangs adoption process, Brian Day, Sheldon Fish and Wild Life Service Refuge Manager, sent a letter to potential adopters in May announcing the new policy of funneling all horses through agents. The letter states "I have made it abundantly clear to all of them that the worst thing that could happen to this program is to have horses end up in a slaughter facility." In the letter he announced that they had found a third agent and that a thorough screening had shown this man to be of the highest integrity. The new agent's name was Gary Graham and his address was later given as 440 W. Highway 6, Los Lunas, New Mexico. A background check on Graham returned only the address and telephone number given by USF&W, but the address was a different matter.
The Graham address is virtually a Grand Central Station of horse slaughter. It is well known to the purchasing agents of the BelTex slaughter house in Texas. A summary check of their records showed that one Bill Owen used the same address when he delivered dozens of loads of horses to slaughter even as the Steffans were having such remarkable success finding "local adopters".
But the slaughter connection to Gary Graham's address does not end there. A physical check of the location revealed that it is the home of the Southwest Stock Yard run by one Dennis Chavez. Dennis Chavez was also busy delivering horses to BelTex during the period of FFM's adoption success, but using the address 24 Dallies Road, an address that is virtually the same property as that of Gary Graham and Bill Owen! And as if this were not enough, it is the address used by one Leon Spain when he delivered slaughter horses to the Dallas Crown slaughter plant in Kaufman, Texas.*
*This information comes directly from documents posted in 2006 by a special research group: Susan Pohlman, Valerie James-Patton and John Holland signed many of these documents.
This information was gathered in 2006! This is not a “new” situation. These horses have virtually no protections. They leave the Refuge unbranded, unidentifiable. How many have crossed our borders and into a slaughter plant by an industry that appears to be completely subsidized by tax dollars, and supported by an agency (Sheldon NWR) that does not have the ability to cope with wild horses with a standard that at least is attempted by the BLM!
The 2006 Gather
In June of 2006 the Sheldon NWR ordered a gather of wild horses. They had their specially screened contractors ready to take horses and the contractors would receive $300.00 a head for each horse they removed from the gather. The public was assured that gathers are safe and not done during foaling season. Yet extreme measures were taken to attempt to hide all activity from the public. Police were hired, gates were installed and a two-mile distance was then established for the public. Cattoor the company that flies the helicopters took to the air. I will add more info about the Cattoor contract later.
The FWS announced that the gather was done safely. It made a claim that all the foals had arrived with their mothers. FWS reported one injury involving a lip.
Reports began to come in of the various deceptions. Those listening to radio transmissions during the gather heard talk of a horse that broke a leg and was shot. A ground search began that turned up dead and injured foals. Mares in the gather pens aborted.
Sheldon NWR was notified of the slaughterhouse connection with Gary Graham. Out of the horses gathered Graham was still given 62, along with his $300.00 of taxpayer money per horse. Are you outraged yet?
If you would like to see pictures and statements from eyewitnesses go to this website.
Warning the pictures are not suitable for younger people.http://www.wildhorsepreservation.com/sheldon.html

The Restore Our American Mustangs (ROAM) Act (S. 1579), recently introduced by Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV), will restore protections for our country's wild horses and burros that were stripped away in recent years.

Not only will the ROAM Act ensure that our mustangs and burros are once again protected from slaughter, but it seeks to reclaim land - some 19 million acres - taken away from these magnificent animals. Please take a moment to contact your U.S. Senators today and ask them to cosponsor this vital legislation.

(It's essential that we contact the officials in the message below, but it's very important that we also let our own federal legislators know how we feel about this issue, wherever we live. If legislators hear from enough of their constituents, they might pressure BLM on their own. So I provided the links at the bottom of this e-mail. What's happening to these animals is outrageous, so we must keep protesting. I'm calling my Senators and Representative first thing tomorrow to ask that they add their support by taking action to try to stop this.)

FRIENDS OF KINSHIP CIRCLE, http://friendsofkinshipcircle.wordpress.com**This is an occasional Kinship Circle Primary alert we share with KC Disaster
Aid. Dual subscribers will get alert twice. Kindly delete the duplicate.**QUESTIONS? CONTACT ALERT WRITER. PLEASE DO NOT HIT REPLY. ===
11th Hour For California's Wild Burros And HorsesALERT WRITER: Linda Lee, llee@uci.edu / PJ Bremier, mustangs@mindspring.comBACKGROUND: On Tuesday, 9/29/09, the last wild burros, along with hundreds
of wild horses throughout the West, leave California -- rounded up and
trucked off to government holding pens. Unadoptable animals commonly wind up
at auction, sold to kill floors in Canada or Mexico... EVERYONE (no matter
where you live): Contact President Obama, plus Senators Feinstein and Boxer
-- whom we understand may have the power to intervene...TAKE ACTION: President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden
The White House / 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW / Washington, DC 20500
comments: 202-456-1111 or 202-456-9000
switchboard: 202-456-1414; fax: 202-456-2461
contact forms: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/, http://www.whitehouse.gov/ContactUs/
Senator Diane Feinstein
331 Hart Senate Office Building / Washington, D.C. 20510
ph: 202-224-3841; fax: 202-228-3954
contact form: http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.EmailMeSenator Barbara Boxer
112 Hart Senate Office Building / Washington, D.C. 20510
ph: 202-224-3553; fax: 202-224-0454
contact form: http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/email/policy.cfmSAMPLE LETTER / TALKING POINTS (Kinship Circle did not write this):From: Linda Lee, llee@uci.edu / PJ Bremier, mustangs@mindspring.comDear President Obama, Senator Feinstein, and Senator Boxer:The Bureau of Land Management has been on a rampage many call "America's
Summer of the Wild Horse and Burro Wipe-Out."
BLM has misused the Wild Horse and Burro Program for years, managing for
extinction rather than preservation. Instead of protecting our beloved wild horse and burro herds, BLM caves to pressure from special interests such as big game hunting, mining, oil drilling, development, and ranching.
On September 29, 2009, BLM will permanently erase California's last wild
burro herds from the Mojave Natural Preserve -- unless you stop it.
Since last month alone, BLM eliminated 12 horse herds, along with 1.6
million acres of legally designated land in Ely, Nevada. These historical
bloodlines are lost forever. In Wyoming, BLM seized 300 horses. In Challis, Idaho, a roundup of 400 horses left six dead and six foals orphaned.
BLM recently reduced Cloud's Herd, famously documented on PBS Nature series,
to 120 horses -- too few for genetic viability. And they removed the herd's
"elders," horses crucial to herd survival.
But BLM is not finished. In upcoming weeks, 270 wild horses will vanish from
Caliente, Nevada. Over 200 others will be confiscated from ranges in Idaho,
450 in Tobin, Nevada, nearly 500 in Oregon, and 650 in California. Wyoming's
Red Desert Complex will lose 700 wild horses, including 250 foals.
Taxpayers shell out an annual $25 to $49 million to sustain more than 30,000
captured wild horses and burros in federal compounds. Despite BLM denial, it
is believed surplus American horses are commonly sold to "killer buyers" and
shipped to foreign slaughterhouses.
During these hard economic times, the fiscally responsible solution is to
return the 19 million acres that BLM illegally stole from these animals and
manage herds on the land, not in holding pens.
Please call for an immediate stop to removal of wild burro herds in the Mojave Desert on 9/29/09. I hope you will do everything within your power to
terminate more roundups and hold BLM and DOI accountable for their
non-compliance with laws meant to shield our treasured herds.
President Obama's administration promised government transparency and
accountability. I call upon you to fulfill that promise with the Bureau of Land Management, an agency that acts as a law unto itself.
Sincerely, <YOUR FULL NAME, FULL ADDRESS, COUNTRY>

**
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Sat Sep 19, 2009 4:17 am (PDT)
Cloud Foundation Issues Appeal to Supporters
Cloud Photo by Terry Fitch
The Adoption is September 26th at the BLM Britton Springs Administrative Corrals outside of Lovell, WY and then advocates from around the US are headed to DC!
Dear Cloud Supporters,
Just a quick update:
- Plans are coming together to adopt/purchase older horses and keep them together in their family bands until we have successfully lobbied for their release or the Washington DC District Court rules against the BLM. Please send donations to the Freedom Fund for getting the horses and to help us cover legal expenses. Our attorney and a great team of volunteers recently prevented the zeroing out of the West Douglas Herd in Colorado; we need more wins like that for our wild horses.
-Please join us in Washington DC for "Mustangs on the Hill" on the 29th of September. We will meet on the West Lawn of the Capitol Building in the morning for a press conference where Ginger will speak along with many other leading humane and wild horse advocates, Celebrity supporters and Senators and Congress people who are supportive of the ROAM Act. We will then spread out to meet with Senators and their staff to push for the immediate passage of the ROAM Act which is now in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee. Please start calling your Senators now. Click here for more information about this important event. New t-shirts featuring Conquistador in a campaign for the release of the older horses now available- wear yours to DC! Click here for more information. Please come to the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meeting on September 28th in nearby Arlington, VA. Click here for more information-- make
comments even if you can't come.
-If you are planning on adopting a Pryor Horse on September 26th please let us know as soon as possible: info@thecloudfoundation.org (info @ thecloudfoundation.org) or 719-633-3842
- New Press Release-- please distribute! If we can all write letters to the editor and include this press release, we can really get the word out about our wild horses. Ask your local media to do a feature story on you or another advocate with a local angle!
Thank you for your continued support-- keep the faith for our wild horses, there is a strong movement now to secure a future for them. The roundup of Cloud's herd is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the mismanagement of our wild herds. We hope you can join us in D

The conquest; Conquistador, aging PBS star still held and at risk of death.

Disclaimer: Do not view these links if you suffer from high blood pressure, incontinence, vomiting or chronic, persistent dependence on rational thought. Persons who pay taxes to the US Government should avoid prolonged viewing of this material. Exposure to minors may cause premature, long-term loss of faith in adult society.

Hi Folks,
Most of you have heard about the main demonstration on the 29th (Tuesday) in DC. I have pasted the notification at the bottom if you have not seen it. If you live away from DC and can only get to one, that is the one to plan for. Additionally, however, we were informed by congressional staffers that the BLM is going all out to get them to their adoption event in Lorton, VA (about 10 miles south of the DC beltway) on Saturday the 26th. This is the BLM notice for the adoption event:

Wild Horse
ADOPTION
Directions: >From Rt 1, take Gunston Rd(east), go 2.4 miles
past the BLM Meadowood entrance onto Harley Rd.1.
Friday Preview: 1 - 5 pm
Saturday Adoption: 8am - 5pm
First come, first served only. No oral bid process.
TM
866-4MUSTANGS blm.gov
September 25 & 26
Lorton, Virginia
Meadowood Special Rec Mgmt Area
10406 Gunston Road, Lorton VA
We decided we could not pass up the opportunity, but we did not want to risk turning off adopters with BLM bashing. While the event of the 29th is the big show, some of you may not be able to get off work during the week and some may be able to get to both. Those who can join us on Saturday the 26th are urged to do so. Those coming from any distance may stay Friday night with us at:

The rate is $79 and includes hot breakfast and 10% off on 8 local restaurants
Each person will need to make their own reservations. Ask for the EWA rate.
Those who can attend on Saturday should email either John or Maria.john@equinewelfarealliance.orgmlk@acmeemail.com
We will meet in the lobby at 7:30 AM.
We will not be using posters or protesting, but simply displaying support for ROAM and the slaughter bills. To that end, we have had a T-shirt made specifically for the Adoption event. Anyone who shows up can have a shirt though I will be accepting donations to cover the cost ($13). We recommend you bring a light jacket.

Valerie Kennedy tells me there will be fancier T-shirts of Conquistador available at the event of the 29th.

John Holland
---
Here is the announcement for the main demonstration on the 29th:

Dear Mustang Advocate;
I would like to personally invite you to join us at the BLM Advisory Board Meeting on the 28th of September in Arlington, VA and also "Mustangs On The Hill" in Washington, DC on September 29th. Please click for more details on the BLM Meeting.
For Mustangs on the Hill, we will be gathering on the West Front Lawn of Capitol Hill on the 29th for 8:00AM to 4:00PM. We will leave from this location to meet with Senators on the Committee of Energy and Natural Resources to urge them to support the ROAM Act.
You may RSVP to mustangsonthehill@gmail.com. Please join us and help preserve and protect our wild horses!
We are encouraging everyone to make appointments with their US Senators- call 202-224-3121 or click here. We are trying to focus on members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to get the ROAM Act out of committee... click here for names and contact information. Please call, fax, e-mail all and request that they support the ROAM Act.
Please invite everyone you can! There is a huge outcry for wild horses now, partly as a result of this disastrous round up of Cloud’s herd. Perhaps that will be the catalyst for real change.
Cheers,
Ginger Kathrens
Volunteer Executive Director
The Cloud Foundation, Inc.

cross post from www.thecloudfoundation.wordpress.com
Your Eyes Needed on Roundups-1000's More Horses to be Rounded Up This Year
September 17, 2009 by thecloudfoundation
Photographer Pam Nickoles has compiled a list of upcoming 2009 roundups where the eyes of the public are needed! BLM has not yet provided a list of roundups by date, but we are working on getting that. Get a group of friends together, bring your still and video cameras, even your tape recorders. We need eyes on the ground that are wild horses are being removed from in such massive numbers. Nearly 1000 horses are to be removed from the Red Desert Complex in Wyoming this year alone– we need many people to observe a roundup of that magnitude. You can read the Environmental Asssesment here.
The list of over 30 roundups scheduled for 2009 can be found at:http://www.nickoles photography.com/HTML/gathers.html

forwarded by:

Robin J. Yager, Director
Network Partners for Animals*
* We do not sanction any groups' ethics or actions and offer the Network Partners Group as a networking resource tool.

From:Holland
To: Holland
Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 1:33 AM
Subject: Burns blockbuster!
Saddleback magazine has just posted an interview with Conrad Burns. In it, Burns says his infamous "Burn's amendment" was in fact a favor for none other than Harry Reid! You will really have to read this to believe it!http://www.horsebackmagazine.com/index.html

“Mustangs On The Hill” in Washington DC on September 29th to support the ROAM ACT. Please click for more details on the BLM Meeting. Send in your comments as soon as possible to Ramona_delorme@blm.gov and reference: WH&B Advisory Board Comments. We are working on getting local and national media to both events and also, Celebrity Speakers.

We will be gathering on the West Front Lawn of Capitol Hill on the 29th from 8:00AM to 4:00PM where we will have speakers and will be meeting with Senators on the Committee of Energy and Natural Resources to urge them to support the ROAM Act and place it on the calendar throughout the day.

We will have a Banner that we will give to the Committee of Energy and Natural Resources with the names of everyone who donated to the Freedom Fund. If you plan on attending either of these events, please RSVP as soon as possible so we can plan for the amount of people coming. You may RSVP to mustangsonthehill@gmail.com (mustangsonthehill @ gmail.com). We are expecting a minimum of 2,000 people for the event on the 29th so please join us and help preserve and protect our wild
horses! Thank you to everyone for your continued support and we hope to see you soon!

If any FOB is going, please email me sharonsfun21@yahoo.com so I can keep you posted as to the rules, regulations, guidelines we all must follow and any other information you will need along with continuous updates out of TCF.

Tue Sep 15, 2009 7:17 am (PDT)
----- Original Message -----
From: The Cloud Foundation
To: Marge
Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 1:23 AM
Subject: Cloud's Capture and Release- Take Action to Save Wild Horses + Preview of New Cloud Program
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"Are They Still Real?"
A young girl's question rings true as we continue to lose our herds of wild mustangs to uncontrollable mismanagement by our own government. Here is an update on Cloud's capture and release and what you can do now. Plus a preview of the new show!
Dear Friends of Cloud and his herd;
On September 9th six of us stood atop a low hill near the corrals where the Pryor wild horses would be set free. The first band to be released was Cloud’s. But, the family was missing the young members of the band and Cloud knew it. Instead of racing to freedom as he has done twice before, he dashed in a circle around his mares and lone foal, Jasmine. Again and again he tried to snake them back toward the corrals where part of his family was held captive.
It is the stallion father’s job to keep the family together and we saw a display unlike anything I have ever seen as Cloud swept past his band trying to keep them from returning to the mountain top. The whole time wranglers on horse back drove the band and yelled at the horses, trying to get them to leave. Cloud paid no attention to the riders on their tall horses. Instead he tried in vain to reunite his splintered family. In the end the mares won, racing away with Cloud grudgingly following. With tears in our eyes, we watched him disappear into the desert.
Two days earlier we had stood on high hill over looking the corrals watching as bands were driven in from the mountain top through the desert. My heart dropped as I spotted the pale horse in the distance with his band. It was Cloud. The helicopter pilot dipped and swerved, doing its best to bring his family in through the desert foothills. With the Black in the lead, the band broke back time and again, as if knowing what lay before them. Finally, the helicopter was able to press them into the wings of the trap and Cloud took the lead. The Judas horse was released and raced past him. What happened next was a first for me. Cloud completely ignored the lure of the Judas horse! When the corral came into view he slowed and the band pushed in around him, trying to run away from the helicopter. Dust swirled around them as Cloud stopped and turned to face the chopper and stood still for a few seconds. Then, he turned following his
family into the corral. I have never seen this kind of defiant courage . . . ever.
And so, I ask that we take his lead. Courage is what we need now. Courage and tenacity.
We must keep up the fight.
photo above: Living Images by Carol Walker
SHOW PREVIEW HERE. The new PBS Nature Cloud program, "Cloud: Challenge of the Stallions" will premiere on Sunday, October 25th - many of the horses you will meet in this third chapter now sit in pens at the base of their mountain home. Please help us lobby for the release of the older horses immediately. You can read and follow our frequent updates on The Cloud Foundation blog here.
TAKE ACTION NOW:
Ask for the release of the older horses from the Pryor Mountain roundup, it is cruel and nonsensical to remove Grumpy, 21 year old mare, Conquistador, a 19-year-old band stallion, and the 11 other horses over ten years old. Ask for the immediate reform of the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program, call daily and fax your comments as well!
1. White House Switchboard – 202-456-1414 (fax: 202-456-2461) -- Ask for Senior Advisors: Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod. Ask for Michelle Obama too, her office is receiving a tremendous number of calls and they need to continue.
2. Call your Senators – switchboard 202-224-3121 and ask that they support S1579, The Restore our American Mustang (ROAM) Act
3. Call the Senate Committee of Natural Resources – 202-224-4971 (fax 202-224-6163) Email here. ask that they push the ROAM Act through immediately– it must go up for a vote soon in the Senate
4. .Join us for for the next Advisory Board Meeting and "Mustangs on the Hill"- Sept. 28 & 29th
Please join me and many others at the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board Meeting in Arlington, VA on September 28th (click here for information). Make your voice heard – and then join us in DC on the hill for meetings with key members of the Senate as well as upper-level whitehouse and Department of Interior staff the following day. Our wild horses' hoofbeats need to be heard in Washington DC! More details to follow to be posted on our blog soon.
You are receiving this email because you have asked to be on our e-mail list. If you have received this e-mail in error, please unsubscribe. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience!
Our mailing address is:
The Cloud Foundation 107 South 7th St Colorado Springs, CO 80905
Our telephone:
719-633-3842
Copyright (C) 2008 The Cloud Foundation All rights reserved.
Forward this email to a friend
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Wed Sep 9, 2009 2:35 pm (PDT)
Please pass to your lists:
See http://www.thecloudfoundation.org for ACTION ALERT. We'll need to keep calling to get older horses released and number kept back down to original 20 1-2 year olds.
Robin
forwarded message:
From Jerry
According to RT - Cloud is free, but would not leave because they are
keeping took another of his daughters away. They are keeping 6 of 9 of
Cloud's bloodlines and family. Cloud only left when his mares joined him.
This is probably the most heartbreaking part if it all. - Jerry
forwarded by:
Robin J. Yager, Director
Network Partners for Animals*
* We do not sanction any groups' ethics or actions and offer the Network Partners Group as a networking resource tool. http://www.partnershelpinganimalscoalition-subscribe@yahoogroups.com (remove spacing)
Spring Farm CARES
3364 Route 12
Clinton, NY 13323
315-790-1404http://www.springfarmcares.org (no spaces)
Life is as dear to the mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wants
happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not to die, so
do other creatures. ~ His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Breaking News - Pryor Mountain gather halted!

The following comes from Jerry Finch and the folks on site. We will discuss the latest news on Howling Ridge tonight. Hopefully we will have more details by then.

**BREAKING NEWS**

The Pryor Mountain Roundup has been called off! They are leaving around 25 horses - 4 family bands, alone.
One foal is missing from the family brought in yesterday. One other foal is very lame.
Red Raven and his family did not come down. They are hiding in the mountains. Two foals are thought to be with this family.
They will be releasing horses today, including most of Cloud's family.
More to come

Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 2:00 PM
Subject: : 1 pm update from the Pryor's
>> 10 am update :
>>> We were rushed out of here last night told that public hours were till
>>> 5 - this was right after Jackson's band came in - this morning I read in
>>> Matt's blog that Jackson's mare Brumby had tied up and had to be treated
>>> by the vet - clearly this was why we were rushed out of here. The band
>>> brought in after we left was Duke's with Madonna and her month old
>>> foal - I am hoping we get a walk through this morning so we can see the
>>> condition of the horses. I got here at 8 they are already processing the
>>> horses and we are stuck in the parking lot not able to see but just
>>> hearing the frantic cries of the horses separated from each other.
>>> Carol Walker
>>> Cw@livingimagescjw.com
>>> www.wildhoofbeats.com
>>
>> 1pm update:
>> We got the walk through - Brumby looks good, eating and moving around.
>> Rain from Cloud's band colicked last night but looks ok now.
>> Good news - Cloud Dancer from Cloud's band will be released as well as
>> Cascade from Bolder's band.
>> The humane observer Elyse Gardner was finally let back in with an escort
>> after signing an agreement. Donn Glenn and Jim Sparks are being much
>> nicer, more forthcoming today. Waiting for the helicopter.
>> Carol Walker
>> Cw@livingimagescjw.com
>> www.wildhoofbeats.com
>>
>> FRIENDS -I KNOW YOU ARE PROBABLY TIRED OF ALL THESE EMAILS BUT THE BLM IS
>> COUNTING ON US GIVING UP.WE CANNOT GIVE IN AND LET THEM WIN.WE CANNOT!!!!
>> WE HAVE TO KEEP AT THEM!
>> IN THE SPIRIT OF BARBARO AND WILD HORSE ANNIE-WE WILL PERSERVERE.JUSTICE
>> WILL BE SERVED IN THE END!!!!!
>>

>> Please log on below to find all your legislator contact info for your
>> state:
>> http://capwiz.com/compassionindex/dbq/vote_info
>>AND PLEASE KEEP CALLING THE PH #'S BELOW AT THE SUGGESTION OF
>> REP.RAHALL'S OFFICE,THEY TOLD ME THIS MORNING THAT ARE FIGHTING THIS !
>> The House Committee of Natural Resources 202-225-6065
>> The Senate Committee of Energy and Natural Resources 202-224-4971
>> IF ANYONE WANTS CLOUD FLIERS TO DOWNLOAD-PLEASE EMAIL ME AT :
>> CDEMAO@PARALLAX.WS
>> WE HAVE PEOPLE EVEN DISTRIBUTING THEM AT THEIR COUNTY FAIRS.BE SURE YOU
>> SEND ME WHAT EMAIL ADDY TO SEND THEM TO THANKS!

Mon Sep 7, 2009 6:22 pm (PDT)
Please send email addy and contact info if you would like to be a part
of the mass movement on Washington to free Cloud's herd. The details
are not firm yet, but there are plans to march peacefully. We need to
continue letting the White House know (phone/fax/email) that we are NOT
happy, and that the mustangs need to be released! There is also talk of
a class action suit, but also in the early stages of development.
If you would like to be a part of ANY of this, please send info to me
for now, I will get it all to the right person when the details are
figured out... fatoldfarmwife@verizon.net (fatoldfarmwife @ verizon.net) And everyone will be contacted.
Thanks.
Beth

Please comment and thank NBC for covering this controversial round-up of the Pryor Mountain horses.

Also please pass to your contacts. They track the number of times the feature is viewed.

Life is as dear to the mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wantshappiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not to die, sodo other creatures. ~ His Holiness The Dalai Lama

The round up has been delayed until todays' hearing at 1:30 - please keep Cloud and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

Robin

forwarded message:

Please take a moment today and send your positive energy to the Federal Court hearing tomorrow at 1:30 pm.

Many communities have historic preservation foundations. For the wild horses who carry our history on their backs, whose presence keep our last remaining wild places for our children, the foundation is us.

We all signed on to pass the slaughter bill, why are we working on the wild horse issue? Great question!

First, because these horses matter, second, it's a test. This issue is closely tied to slaughter because the R.O.A.M. act, now making its way through Congress, will specifically protect our wild horses from that fate. Some analysts suspect underneath this whole shebang is a back-door way to get around the European Union's new crackdown on drugs in domestic US horses. Tactically, by protecting our wild horses, we put one more nail in the coffin of horse slaughter in the US.

Please keep calling. If this will be your first call, welcome aboard! The horses - and our grandkids - thank you.

BILLINGS, MONTANA- August 31, 2009: The Pryor Mountain Wild Horses, perhaps best known from the popular Cloud: Wild Stallion of the Rockies PBS Nature series, have two more days of freedom before an unprecedented round up could begin. The Pryors roundup has been delayed for two days to allow Judge Sullivan of the Federal District Court to hear the case brought against the BLM by The Cloud Foundation and Front Range Equine Rescue.

The Bureau of Land Management, responsible for managing wild horses on public lands in the United States, plans to round up all the horses in Montana’s only remaining wild herd and remove 70 horses plus four or more foals. Thiswill leave a non-viable herd of only 120 horses according to respected equine geneticist, Gus Cothran, Ph.D., of Texas A&M University. The Pryor Mountain wild horses are a unique Spanish herd renowned for their primitive markings, historical connections, and spectacular habitat.

BLM is dispatching National Wild Horse and Burro Program staff for this round up, perhaps because they expect trouble from humane advocates who are currently being prevented from observing this roundup. “Never before in my experience have plans been so vague and operations so secret in the Pryors,” says Ginger Kathrens, Volunteer Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation.” The BLM will be closing down roads to the mountain top where the majority of the herd spends their days grazing peacefully in their subalpine meadows. Young foals, only days old will be driven by helicopters and are in serious danger of being hurt or killed. Billings BLM Field Manager Jim Sparks told one advocate that they would expect a loss of 2% or six horses as a result of this operation.

The BLM has always had signs posted at the entrances to the horse range that tell the public to ‘report violations of harassment, death or removals.’ “Why are they above the law?” Asks Crow Tribe Historian and Elder, Howard Boggess. “Everything that is against the law for me they are planning to do to these horses. This is a very sad thing as far as I’m concerned. The horses have lived here for over 200 years. Even under the harassment of the BLM they’ve survived since 1971.”

The BLM claims that it is necessary to remove 70 horses in order to “maintain a thriving ecological balance.” However, the range is still green in late August following three years of above average precipitation after a multi-year drought. The horses are fat, preparing to go into winter. “Why are they removing nearly half the horses after the drought is over? I’ve told them [the BLM] if you take these 70 horses you’ve destroyed the bloodline, the gene pool will no longer be there,” continues Boggess. “Their whole goal is to get rid of the horses.”

“What they are proposing to do is criminal— people locally and all across the Nation worked so hard to save these horses from eradication in 1968,” explains Kathrens. “This range was specially designated for wild horses, the first of its kind in the nation. This is their refuge and it is about to be invaded.”

The BLM plans to remove 17 horses over ten years old and by BLM’s Standard Operating Procedures, “old, sick or lame horses shall be destroyed.” “When they take out the old horses they remove the ones that know the way to the water, the good grass, the way around the canyon - they’re taking out all of the knowledge of the herd,” Boggess explains. “It is really sad to sit there and look at the horses and think that in the next ten days they’ll be taken off this range and they’ll never see it again.”

This case is scheduled to be heard on Wednesday, September 2nd, and thousands of people around the United States and the world await the decision of Judge Sullivan which will decide the fate of the unique and beloved Pryor Wild Horse Herd.

Press Release
BILLINGS, MONTANA- AUGUST 31, 2009: The Pryor Mountain Wild Horses, perhaps best known from the popular Cloud: Wild Stallion of the Rockies PBS Nature series, have two more days of freedom before an unprecedented round up could begin. The Pryors roundup has been delayed for two days to allow Judge Sullivan of the Federal District Court to hear the case brought against the BLM by The Cloud Foundation and Front Range Equine Rescue.

The Bureau of Land Management, responsible for managing wild horses on public lands in the United States, plans to round up all the horses in Montana’s only remaining wild herd and remove 70 horses plus four or more foals. This will leave a non-viable herd of only 120 horses according to respected equine geneticist, Gus Cothran, Ph.D., of Texas A&M University. The Pryor Mountain wild horses are a unique Spanish herd renowned for their primitive markings, historical connections, and spectacular habitat.
BLM is dispatching National Wild Horse and Burro Program staff for this round up, perhaps because they expect trouble from humane advocates who are currently being prevented from observing this roundup. “Never before in my experience have plans been so vague and operations so secret in the Pryors,” says Ginger Kathrens, Volunteer Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation.” The BLM will be closing down roads to the mountain top where the majority of the herd spends their days grazing peacefully in their subalpine meadows. Young foals, only days old will be driven by helicopters and are in serious danger of being hurt or killed. Billings BLM Field Manager Jim Sparks told one advocate that they would expect a loss of 2% or six horses as a result of this operation.
The BLM has always had signs posted at the entrances to the horse range that tell the public to ‘report violations of harassment, death or removals.’ “Why are they above the law?” Asks Crow Tribe Historian and Elder, Howard Boggess. “Everything that is against the law for me they are planning to do to these horses. This is a very sad thing as far as I’m concerned. The horses have lived here for over 200 years. Even under the harassment of the BLM they’ve survived since 1971.”
The BLM claims that it is necessary to remove 70 horses in order to “maintain a thriving ecological balance.” However, the range is still green in late August following three years of above average precipitation after a multi-year drought. The horses are fat, preparing to go into winter. “Why are they removing nearly half the horses after the drought is over? I’ve told them [the BLM] if you take these 70 horses you’ve destroyed the bloodline, the gene pool will no longer be there,” continues Boggess. “Their whole goal is to get rid of the horses.”
“What they are proposing to do is criminal— people locally and all across the Nation worked so hard to save these horses from eradication in 1968,” explains Kathrens. “This range was specially designated for wild horses, the first of its kind in the nation. This is their refuge and it is about to be invaded.”
The BLM plans to remove 17 horses over ten years old and by BLM’s Standard Operating Procedures, “old, sick or lame horses shall be destroyed.” “When they take out the old horses they remove the ones that know the way to the water, the good grass, the way around the canyon - they’re taking out all of the knowledge of the herd,” Boggess explains. “It is really sad to sit there and look at the horses and think that in the next ten days they’ll be taken off this range and they’ll never see it again.”
This case is scheduled to be heard on Wednesday, September 2nd, and thousands of people around the United States and the world await the decision of Judge Sullivan which will decide the fate of the unique and beloved Pryor Wild Horse Herd.